Beyond the Races
by katzsoa
Summary: A young half-human, half-monster stumbles upon Univir Settlement and the town of Sharance. She doesn't know who she is...but she is meant to change both communities forever and reshape their entire world. RF3, gender-flipped, species-swapped!
1. Amnesia and Univir

A gust of wind through the tent flap extinguished the torch in Ondorus's tent, much to his annoyance. It was too dark to read without it, and keeping up a magical light was too tiring this late at night.

He rose from his chair, careful not to bump into anything as he walked over to where he knew the torch would be. A flash of lightning illuminated the room for just an instant, accompanied by a loud rumble of thunder.

_What a nasty storm, _Ondorus thought. _I would hate to have to be out and about tonight._

Just as he managed to find the torch in the darkness and relight it, another gust of wind flung the tent flap wide open, letting the rain blow inside. Ondorus sighed and approached the entryway to his makeshift home, raising a hand to close it again.

Suddenly, another flash of lightning illuminated a large shape lying just outside his tent, blocking the way out. Confused, Ondorus approached the shape and placed a wary hand on it. He touched soaked fabric on… was it a body?

Ondorus rolled the shape over, and his torch cast the shape's features into light. It was a body, a person with long, gold-colored hair in a ponytail, pale skin, and the face of a female youth. She wore a long-sleeved, dark blue shirt, black trousers, and gray boots. There was a round, purple gem hanging from a string around her neck. Ondorus turned her head so that he could see her ears. They were rounded, not pointed like those of a dwarf or an elf.

"A human…!" the univir gasped. "How did you get all the way out here?"

The human appeared to be unconscious. Ondorus placed a hand on her neck, where he felt a weak pulse. It seemed that she was in very poor health.

The univir hesitated, loyalty to the settlement and its elder grappling with moral responsibility. Finally, he made a decision.

"I can't just leave you out in the rain," he sighed as he pulled the girl into his tent and closed the flap, loosely tying it shut.

Ondorus laid the human girl down on his bed and knelt on the floor next to her, placing a hand on her shoulder and calling upon the magic in his horn. Soon, a glowing light shone around the girl, healing her. Through his magic, Ondorus felt the girl grow stronger, and soon she shifted from unconsciousness into a peaceful sleep. The sounds of the storm seemed to be quieting, as well.

"Ondorus?"

Ondorus stiffened slightly at the sound of Kuruna's voice. She would not be happy with him once she saw what he had done… Despite fear of the elder's temper, he rose to his feet and went to greet her as she came into his tent.

"Good evening, Kuruna," he said.

"Ondorus, I… Who is that?" the univir elder snapped, her light-blue eyes narrowing as she noticed the figure on his bed.

"Um… That's just…" Ondorus fumbled for an answer.

Kuruna gasped, taking a few startled steps backwards.

"That's a human!" she exclaimed. "What is it doing in the settlement?"

"She was injured," Ondorus explained. "I am healing her."

"Are you insane?" said Kuruna. "You must be. An injured human is a safe human, Ondorus. A healthy human will come back and attack us!"

"I couldn't just leave her out in the rain," Ondorus protested.

"Get rid of it!" Kuruna insisted. "Get rid of it this instant!"

Ondorus sighed. There was no arguing with Kuruna once she had made up her mind.

"Very well," he said, walking over to the bed and picking up the girl. She stirred slightly in her sleep as he moved her, but she didn't wake up. Ondorus cradled her in his arms, her head resting against his shoulder. Kuruna watched him, her eyes suspicious as he passed her on his way out of the tent and through the settlement's southern entrance.

"At least it is no longer raining," Ondorus muttered to himself. The clouds had dispersed, and there was now enough moonlight and starlight to see by.

"If only Kuruna were a bit more open-hearted," the univir said, directing his speech to the girl, although there would be no response. "Whatever happened between our ancestors and yours has long since passed…and you might not even be descended from the humans who live in the town, for all we know! …I'll just put you where you'll be able to find your way back to the other humans."

The only other monsters that Ondorus passed on his way were a few goblins, but they ignored him. He just hoped that they would continue to stay away from the girl once he had left her. It wasn't that he had any personal attachment to the human, but he didn't like the idea of leaving someone out in the desert. She looked to be just a few years younger than him—but that was judging by appearances and without accounting for univir longevity. Ondorus was nearing his hundred-and-fortieth birthday. This human was probably eighteen at the most.

Ondorus set the girl in a wide crevice in the canyon wall, arranging her in what he hoped was a relatively comfortable position.

"The bone bridge is that way," he said, feeling as though he should say something to help her despite the fact that she probably couldn't hear him. Maybe his advice would come through in her dreams.

"If you cross it, you should quickly find your way back to the human town," Ondorus continued. "I…wish you the best of luck."

The univir turned and walked away from the sleeping human, wishing that there was some other way and knowing that there wasn't. He didn't dare go any closer to the town, and Kuruna… Well, Kuruna was the way she was. He had done all that he could do, and so he returned to his tent in the settlement.

**XXX**

The sun rose over the desert, quickly reheating the sands that had been cooled by the night. The human girl still lay asleep in the crevice, having gone through the night unnoticed by any marauding monsters.

There were three flashes of light, the third of which completely obscured the girl from view, and then in her place lay a small wolf. It had golden fur, and there was a dark blue bandana around its neck. There was a round, purple gem on a clasp that was holding the ends of the fabric together.

The wolf stirred and opened her eyes, blinking in confusion.

"Huh…?"

She wiggled her way out of the crevice, sliding to the ground.

"What's going on…?" she muttered, looking back at the crevice, which she couldn't seem to remember getting into in the first place. The wolf glanced around, kicking at the sand and staring up at the rocky walls around her. Her teal eyes widened.

"Wait!" she exclaimed. "Where the heck am I?"

She turned and ran down the desert canyon, glancing around wildly for something familiar and finding none. She eventually reached a corner and turned into an open area, in which three large, decorated tents were set up.

"This feels like some sort of weird dream…" the wolf muttered to herself, staring at the tents.

The front flap of the tent directly in front of her, which had orange markings and some skulls on it, opened, and out came a young woman who was wearing long, flowing blue and white robes and glasses. She had very long white-blonde hair and a silver horn grew from the middle of her forehead. There was also a little red and blue creature hovering just above her shoulder. Her light blue eyes lit up as she noticed the wolf, and she eagerly approached it.

"Ah, a traveler!" said the horned girl in a soft, gentle voice. "You are most welcome here, comrade."

The wolf blinked, confused. "'C-Comrade'?" she stammered.

The horned girl smiled. "Oh, don't worry," she said. "It simply means we're cohorts-in-arms! Proud patriots! I'm Kuruna, the proud elder of Univir Settlement. My duty is to defend this land with my blood. What's yours, comrade?"

"My duty…?" The wolf thought, and a worried frown formed on her face.

_What's my duty? I can't remember… Come to think of it, what's my name? Who am I? Where am I from?_

"Is something wrong, comrade?" Kuruna asked.

"Yes…" said the wolf. "I can't remember…"

"You can't remember what?" asked the univir.

"Anything," the wolf explained. "My name… Where I'm from… My 'duty'… I don't know who I am."

"Oh my!" said Kuruna. "Do you mean that you have amnesia?"

"I guess I must…" the wolf said with a shrug, still trying very hard to remember.

"Hmm…" Kuruna thought. "I might be able to heal that…"

"Really?" the wolf gasped.

"The key word is 'might,' comrade," Kuruna said, smiling apologetically. "We univir are gifted with magic, one of the many things that makes us superior to the Hornless. However, a mind is a tricky thing to deal with. It may be wiser to let your mind heal on its own, and just wait for your memories to return."

"I see…" the wolf sighed, her moment of hope gone.

"But…!" Kuruna raised a finger. "As the elder of this settlement, I give you the permission to stay here until you remember where you are from."

"What? You would just let me stay here? Really?" the wolf exclaimed.

Kuruna grinned. "Of course," she said. "We monsters are all united against the savage aggression of the Hornless."

"The Hornless?" the wolf asked. "Who are the Hornless?"

The univir elder frowned.

"They are also called humans," she said. "We univir once lived with them, in a town that lies just outside of this desert. They ran my ancestors out of their town, forcing us to live in the hostile desert… Then again, nothing is more hostile than a human! Nothing! They are savages!"

With every sentence, Kuruna seemed to work herself up even more, until she was shouting angrily at the cowering wolf. Then she closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

"My apologies," she said. "The actions of the Hornless are…unforgivable."

"I see…" the wolf muttered. _Note to self: NEVER mention humans around Kuruna._

"Well, then, comrade…" Kuruna paused, and smiled wryly. "I can hardly go around always calling you 'comrade,' can I? Since you can't remember your name, what should we call you?"

The wolf thought. "How about… Michaela. Call me Michaela."

"Michaela. What an interesting name," the univir commented.

Michaela shrugged. "It was in my head, for some reason… I don't know, it just sounds nice."

"That it does," Kuruna agreed.

"Kuruna?" a voice called. Michaela turned to see that another univir was exiting the tent to her left. He had silver hair that was as long as Kuruna's and he was wearing blue and gray robes and glasses, as well. Michaela noticed that there were strange green markings on his face. _Are they tattoos?_

The univir walked up to them.

"I haven't seen you around here before. You are…?" he asked the wolf. His voice was much lower than Kuruna's, but it had the same soft gentleness that the other univir's had.

"Ondorus, this is Michaela," Kuruna introduced the wolf to her fellow univir. "Michaela, Ondorus."

"Welcome to our settlement, Michaela," Ondorus said.

"Thanks," Michaela replied.

"Michaela has somehow lost her memories, Ondorus," Kuruna explained. "I have decided that she will stay here until she remembers."

Ondorus frowned slightly. "I see," he said. "It is very unfortunate that you have such a condition."

Michaela shrugged. "Well, I don't remember how I'm supposed to feel, so it doesn't really bother me too much."

Ondorus smiled. "That is true," he said. "We always welcome travelers to stay in our settlement. However…"

He turned to the elder. "Just where were you thinking that she would stay, Kuruna? In your tent?"

Kuruna's eyes widened. "Oh… Um, well…"

Ondorus chuckled. "I'm only teasing, Kuruna. Worry not, Michaela, it will be simple enough to set up another tent."

"Ondorus!" Kuruna frowned, embarrassed. "Don't make fun of me like that."

She turned and glanced around the settlement.

"Now, where is Zaid?" she wondered aloud. "If we all put a hand in, this will take no time at all… Zaid!"

"I'm coming, I'm coming…" someone in the tent to Michaela's right called in response. Out stepped a young man with short, unkempt blonde hair, pointed ears, silver eyes, and green and gray armor-like clothes. His sleeves only covered his forearms, and were not attached to his shirt, leaving his black-tattooed upper arms visible.

"Hey, who's this?" he asked, motioning at Michaela.

"This is Michaela," Kuruna explained for the second time that day. "She will be living here, so we're going to set up another tent now. Michaela, this is Zaid."

"Nice to meet you," said the wolf.

"Another tent?" said Zaid. "All right, I guess."

Michaela was surprised by how quickly the construction of the new tent was organized and put into action. Ondorus procured plenty of quality cloth and rope to make the tent from, and everyone got to work. Unfortunately, Michaela's paws put her at a bit of a disadvantage when it came to construction, so she had to sit off to the side and watch. Soon, a wooly and a fairy joined the building crew, and a chipsqueek joined her in watching.

"I wish that I could do something to help," Michaela said to the chipsqueek. "I'm going to be living in it, so I shouldn't have them do all the work, right?"

"Cheep?" said the chipsqueek.

Michaela laughed. "You can't even understand a word I'm saying, can you?"

"Cheep cheep…" said the chipsqueek. "Chip chip cheep."

"Chirris says that she has never seen a wolf with your color of fur," Ondorus explained as he passed by. "It is rare for monsters to speak both their own language and the one common to humanoids. Kuruna, Zaid, and I know just enough of other languages to carry on basic conversations."

"I guess I learned humanoid somewhere along the way," Michaela said. "If only I could remember…"

"Oh, and don't worry about not being able to help," the univir added. "We are glad to help you, and if you truly desire to, then there will be plenty of opportunity for you to help around the settlement in the future."

Michaela smiled. "Thanks, Ondorus. I will help out, I promise!"

Ondorus laughed and went back to the half-finished tent. A few moments later, Zaid came over and sat next to Michaela.

"I'll just take a short break," he said. "Putting up a tent is hard work!"

It didn't look very difficult to Michaela, just time consuming, but she kept her opinion to herself and shrugged.

"Check out my beautiful silver eyes!" Zaid suddenly said, turning so that Michaela could get a good look at his face. "Amazing, right?"

"Um, yeah. I guess," Michaela replied.

"They're unique to my tribe," Zaid said proudly. "No other dwarves have our gleaming silver eyes!"

"You're a dwarf?" Michaela asked, surprised.

"Sure I am!" said Zaid. "What's surprising about that?"

"It's just that… Well, I've never seen a dwarf before, not that I can remember, anyway."

"And you probably think that dwarves are short and hairy with big, braided beards," Zaid said, frowning. "That's just an old stereotype! Most dwarves are normal height, and prefer not to have ridiculous facial hair."

_I wasn't thinking that…but, okay._

"I stand corrected," said Michaela.

"Good!" said Zaid. "Don't forget what you learned about dwarves today!"

"I won't," Michaela promised.

"Zaid!" Kuruna called.

"Oops, got to go!" The dwarf quickly got up and went back over to the tent, which was just being tied down to the ground.

Michaela's tent was made of light blue fabric, with green markings around the edges of the door and roof. It was between Kuruna's and Ondorus's tents, up against the canyon wall.

"There," Kuruna said. "Michaela, come over and have a look."

Michaela got up, upsetting Chirris, who had been using her tail as a pillow, and walked over to the tent. Kuruna held the tent flap open, inviting her to enter. The wolf stepped into the tent. It wasn't very large, but it was nice inside. Someone had set up a brazier and a low table in the middle of the room, and Ondorus was still in there, setting up a bedroll.

"Do you like it?" he asked.

"It's great," Michaela said, grinning. "Thank you. Everyone, thank you." She turned back to the open entryway and the group of monsters that stood there. "For letting me stay, I mean. I'll make it up to you, somehow."

"There is no need for thanks," Kuruna said. "You are one of us."

_They just accept me? Even though they don't know who I am? Heck, _I_ don't even know who I am!_

_This is great…_


	2. Rocks and Stars

"Are you there, Ondorus?"

Michaela ducked through the tent flap of the univir's tent as he set his book down on the table, marking his place.

"Yes," Ondorus replied. "What is it?"

"Nothing in particular," said the wolf. "Kuruna told me that she wanted to take me on a tour, but not until later. I've looked around, but there's nothing else for me to do. If you aren't busy…"

"No, not at all," said Ondorus.

Michaela stepped up to the table. "What are you reading?" she asked.

"This is a history book," said Ondorus. "It's always very interesting to read about what happened in the past."

"When are you?"

Ondorus hesitated.

"Don't tell Kuruna," he said. "But this is actually a human history book."

"A Hornless book?" said the wolf. "Don't you hate them?"

Ondorus frowned. "No, I don't."

"Oh… I'm sorry," Michaela muttered.

"Don't be," said Ondorus. "It is my belief that monsters and humans should keep an open mind about each other. We univir are actually quite similar to humans."

"Really?" said Michaela. "The way Kuruna talks, she makes them sound like hostile barbarians."

"Well, Kuruna has a slightly extremist opinion of humans," Ondorus said, a slightly sorrowful expression on his face. "She was raised to protect our settlement as its elder, and in the time of our grandparents the humans were considered a threat. I don't think that there is any need for us to fight with the descendents of the humans who exiled us. After all, even more generations have passed in that town—humans do not live as long as we univir. But it is not my decision to make."

"I see…"

"I would appreciate it if you didn't tell Kuruna about what I just said," said the univir. "It's not that I enjoy keeping secrets from her, but we have argued about this in the past, and her temper is formidable."

"I know," Michaela said with a slight shudder. She looked around the tent. "You have a _lot _of books."

"Would you like to borrow one?" Ondorus offered. "It may help you pass the time."

"Yeah, I would," said Michaela. Ondorus rose from his chair and walked over to the bookshelf.

"Do you have a favorite topic?"

Michaela shook her head. "Whatever you recommend."

Ondorus pulled a brown-covered volume from the shelf.

"This is one of my favorites," he said, proffering it to the wolf. "I think that you will enjoy it, too."

_The Elder Dragons of Norad_, read the title.

Michaela hesitated, and then opened her mouth, gingerly taking the book between her front teeth for lack of a better way to carry it.

"Thanks," she said, her voice muffled by her attempts to not harm the book.

"Not at all," said Ondorus. "Bring it back when you are finished."

Michaela nodded and exited the tent, heading back towards her own, where she set the book down on the table and flipped it open with a paw.

**XXX**

"Are you ready to go, comrade?" Kuruna called.

Michaela turned away from the book, and the chapter entitled _Fiersome: God of Fire and Destruction_.

"I am!" she said. "You're taking me on a tour, right?"

"Yes," said Kuruna. "Since you are going to be living here, you should be able to find your way around."

"So let's go!" said Michaela, eagerly following Kuruna, who chuckled at the wolf's excitement as she led her out of the settlement's southern entrance.

The univir elder and the wolf walked through the desert canyon.

"I came through this way when I first came here," the wolf said, looking around at the rocky walls.

"Maybe if we retrace your footsteps we will find where your memories lie," said Kuruna.

"Oh, I hope so… It's so weird, not knowing who I—"

"Look out, comrade!" Kuruna shouted suddenly. Michaela leapt aside just as a dagger flew through the air, missing her by millimeters and sticking in a crack in the rocks. She whirled around to see that two dark-skinned, blue-armored humanoids had just rounded the bend and were standing there, blades aloft and snarling.

"Peace!" said Kuruna. "We are not here to fight. Please, let us pass."

The creatures paid her words no mind instead charging at the two girls. Kuruna raised a hand, and a sudden flash of red light sent one of the monsters stumbling backwards, squealing. The other one slashed at Michaela, who backed away in fear.

"Kuruna…!"

The univir elder turned to help her, but the first goblin had recovered and was running back at her.

"Behind you!" Michaela called. Kuruna faced her attacker again, leaving Michaela to fend for herself. The wolf dodged its slices again, trying to avoid injury…

…and then something clicked in her mind, and as though by instinct she ducked beneath the monster's swords and lunged at its chest, knocking it to the ground. She swiped at its face with her claws, leaving a few scratches on its long nose, and then she flipped it through the air and into the rock wall.

The creature fell to the ground, glowed brightly, and vanished in a slight rush of wind. A similar noise from behind Michaela told her that Kuruna too had dispatched her opponent.

"Michaela! Are you all right?" Kuruna asked.

"I'm fine," said the wolf, turning to face her. "Who _were _those guys?"

"Goblins," said Kuruna. "They tend to enjoy conflict more than peaceful negotiation…but this _is _their land, so they have every right to make such a decision…"

She sighed. "I wish that we could have avoided a fight. At least they are back in the Forest of Beginnings now…"

"The Forest of Beginnings?" Michaela repeated. "What's that?"

Kuruna's eyes widened. "Surely you have not forgotten the Forest of Beginnings, too?" she gasped.

Michaela shrugged. "The name rings a bell, but I just don't…"

"The Forest of Beginnings is the world of the monsters," Kuruna explained. "It is the land of our birth, where the ancestors of every monster species originated. It is the one place where the Hornless do not exist. The more feral monsters will return to the Forest immediately upon being defeated, which is fortunate for them."

"I think I understand," said Michaela, who was surprised to find that she actually _did _understand.

_Maybe someone told me about the Forest of Beginnings once…or maybe I've been there? …I just can't remember!_

"You held your own very well against that goblin, comrade," Kuruna observed.

Michaela shrugged again. "I just took action, I guess… I didn't really know what I was doing."

"ME THINK WOLF GIRL IS WARRIOR!" the little red and blue thing floating by Kuruna's shoulder suddenly exclaimed. "SHE BEAT UP GOBLIN, VERY FLAT."

"That thing can _talk?_" Michaela gasped.

"Of course he can talk," said Kuruna. "Didn't I introduce you to him before? Michaela, this is my pet, Will. Will, Michaela."

"Um, nice to meet you, Will," said Michaela.

"WILL WANT BE WOLF GIRL'S FRIEND," said Will. "WOLF GIRL BE DANGEROUS ENEMY!"

"Will! Don't be rude!" Kuruna scolded.

"No, it's okay," said Michaela. "But I don't think I, um, 'be dangerous enemy,' exactly."

Kuruna shook her head.

"Well, let's be off again," she said.

"It's starting to get dark," Michaela pointed out. The sun had sunk behind the rock walls during the skirmish, and now the shadows were long.

"Don't worry about that," Kuruna reassured her. "Actually, where we're going, it would be best if the sun had set."

"Okay…?"

Kuruna laughed and started to walk again, Michaela following.

They continued onward for a few more minutes before the wolf stopped again.

"I think…" she said, peering closely at a crevice in the rock. "I think that I've come by here before."

"Have you?" Kuruna asked.

Michaela nodded.

"I woke up and I was in this crack," she said, nudging it with her nose. "But I don't know how I got there…and I ran off right away once I realized I didn't know where I was."

"It is fortunate that you ended up in the settlement, rather than running in the opposite direction in your disoriented state," said the univir elder.

"Yeah… Wait, why's that?" Michaela said, looking up at Kuruna.

The univir pointed. "This way leads to the bone bridge, and once one has crossed it, it is easy to end up in the human town by mistake."

"Oh…" said Michaela. "They're that close?"

Kuruna nodded. "Just outside of the desert."

"But we're going in that direction now," Michaela observed.

Kuruna sighed. "The place that I want to show you is, unfortunately, very near to the human town…"

"Mhmm…" The wolf thought. "Well, the sooner we get there, the sooner we can leave?"

Despite what Ondorus had said earlier that day, Michaela had no wish to run into the creatures that had driven out the univir, at least not yet. It was a slightly frightening concept.

The bone bridge was, in fact, the enormous spine and ribcage of something long-deceased that spanned the width of a wide stream. The two monsters crossed the spine, and Kuruna glanced around warily as they stepped onto the opposite shore.

"All is quiet," she announced, turning to the left and proceeding along the stream. Michaela sniffed the air. There was a scent here, not like anything that she'd smelt in the settlement… It wasn't univir, nor was it any other kind of monster that she knew.

_Is this what humans smell like? It seems somehow familiar…_

"Michaela?"

The wolf shook herself free of her reveries. "Coming!"

Kuruna led the wolf through another opening in the rock, and they came out into a space that seemed to stretch all the way to the horizon. There was nothing but desert sands for miles and miles. And the sky! Michaela's eyes turned upward to meet a breathtaking sight. It was as though an immense midnight-blue canvas was spread out before her, sprinkled with millions of twinkling white stars.

"What do you think, comrade?" Kuruna asked softly.

"It's so beautiful!" Michaela replied. "The world just expands outward from here, forever… And it's much cooler here than in the rest of the desert!"

"Since we're near the ocean, the heat doesn't get too stifling," Kuruna explained. "Especially at night, and especially here in the Star Dunes."

"The Star Dunes… They're aptly named. I could stay here and look at the sky forever!"

"It _is _amazing, isn't it?" said Kuruna. "And just think… The Hornless can't appreciate beauty like this. Only we can."

"The Hornless are always on your mind," Michaela observed. Then she bit her tongue, remembering the univir elder's reaction the first time they had talked about humans and wishing that she could snatch the thoughtless words back.

But Kuruna responded good-naturedly, to the wolf's great relief.

"I guess they are," she said. "As much as forgetting them would be a desirable pleasure…it is not one that I can afford. They are always a threat."

"Really…" _The way Ondorus explained it, they aren't a threat anymore…_

"For example," said Kuruna. "Monsters usually deliver a diverse selection of food to the settlement, but they've recently stopped coming. I've given the matter much thought, and it is obvious that the Hornless are the cause."

"Could they do that?" Michaela asked.

Kuruna frowned. "Either through intimidation…or through slaughter. Their hands are red with the blood of countless victims!"

"I see…" Michaela said, hoping to avoid being yelled at. Kuruna seemed to be keeping herself in check this time, though.

"Michaela, while your memory is problematic, I ask that you remember this," she said. "Hornless are the root of all evil. Even if the Hornless did not perpetrate this particular injustice, they are evil. Never forget that, comrade."

"I understand," Michaela said.

Suddenly, the ground rumbled beneath her feet.

"An earthquake?" she exclaimed as she and Kuruna regained their balance.

"I don't think so," Kuruna said as the shaking stopped. "That felt more like a rockslide."

"Do you get these often around here?" Michaela asked.

"Yeah. The rocks around here tend to become unstable, especially after we get rain—and we got quite a lot of it last night."

Michaela nodded slowly. "So I guess the desert's beautiful…but also awfully dangerous, sometimes."

Kuruna shrugged and looked out across the dunes.

"Do you head out here often, Kuruna?" Michaela asked.

"I've come here all my life!" Kuruna said, turning back to the wolf. "I used to sneak out here a lot with Ondorus when we were children."

Michaela grinned. "That doesn't sound like appropriate behavior for an elder!"

"Well, even elders used to be kids, you know," Kuruna said, a slight frown crossing her face.

"Sorry, I… I didn't mean to insult you," Michaela said, glancing down at her paws.

"Heh, you didn't insult me," Kuruna reassured her. "I know it's hard to imagine me as a kid."

_Not really, _thought the wolf.

"Time just flew by back then…" Kuruna was saying, a wistful smile upon her face. "It felt like our own secret hideout."

"It sounds like this place means a lot to you. I wish I could get my memories back…" Michaela sighed.

"Oh, I-I didn't mean to offend you!" Kuruna stammered.

"I'm not offended at all!" Michaela said. "Hey, we just went from me thinking I insulted you to you thinking you insulted me… I think we're even," she joked.

Kuruna smiled. "Yes, I think so, too. And I hope that you find your memories soon. Shall we return to the settlement?"

"All right," Michaela said, although she was reluctant to leave the Star Dunes.

As they walked back towards the rocks, the ground began to shake again.

_Oh, no! Another rockslide?_

Michaela looked up at Kuruna, and past her she saw a large boulder tumbling down the rock wall towards the univir's head.

"Look out, Kuruna!" Michaela shrieked, jumping up and shoving the univir elder out of the way. There was an incredible pain in the back of her skull, and then there was only darkness, dotted by the twinkling stars of the desert sky…

**XXX**

"Oh, my head…"

"Michaela! Oh, thank goodness…!"

The wolf slowly opened her eyes. There was a face above her own, but it was so blurry… She blinked, and the horned visage became clearer, although there was a strange white glow framing her vision.

"Kuruna…? What happened?"

"You don't remember?" the univir elder exclaimed. "You knocked me out of the way of a falling rock! Such valorous instincts, comrade!"

"Oh, yeah…" Michaela muttered, trying to shift her feet under her body. Kuruna helped her slowly stand up.

"You aren't hurt at all?" Michaela asked, steadying herself against the previously problematic boulder.

"No, I'm fine," Kuruna said. "If not for your bravery, though, I'm not sure what would have happened! How about you? Are you in pain?"

"A mild headache, but I'm doing fine other than that," said Michaela, finding that she was stable enough to stand without the assistance of the rock.

"That's good to hear. It looks like my healing arts worked."

"That's right, you said that univir have healing magic," Michaela said. "I guess that's what this glowing light is…and even my headache's going away now! Thanks, Kuruna!"

"It is I who should be thanking you, Michaela," said Kuruna. "You sacrificed yourself for the univir elder today. That means so much to me and my people! I will not forget your selflessness, comrade."

Michaela smiled. "I think that's enough adventure for one night. Let's get out of here before we run into any more rockslides!"

"Definitely!" Kuruna agreed.

As the two monsters walked back onto the shores of the bone bridge's river, the wolf suddenly stopped and turned her head back towards the entryway to the Star Dunes… No, she was looking past the dunes, to where the human town lay…

_I've a feeling there's something there, or someone… Someone calling me…? That can't be… But still…_

"Michaela?" Kuruna placed a hand on the wolf's back. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine," Michaela replied, mentally shaking herself for the second time that day. "It's probably just leftover dizziness or something… I'll feel better in the morning."

Kuruna nodded, but her concern was evident on her face.

Later, once they'd reached the settlement, said good-night, and Michaela had laid down on her bedroll, the wolf still couldn't shake the feeling that there _had _been someone or something just beyond the desert's edge, urging her to go and find it…

**XXX**

**A.N.: **I combined two of Kuruna's requests to make this chapter. I didn't think that she would have a wolf go fishing (how would Michaela hold the fishing rod, anyway?), but I still wanted to have this scene in the Star Dunes, and the conversation about Hornless, so there you go.

I can't believe I let the first chapter slip by without introducing Will! Hmm, I'll have to throw in Owlvin and Owlsey somewhere…

Thoughts?


	3. Pineapples and Humans

A few days later, Michaela was heading back to her tent after a short walk outside of the settlement, feeling slightly down. Everyone here was so nice to her, but there was nothing for her to do to pay them back! She didn't have hands, so she couldn't take her turn in cooking for everyone, and just about everything else was under the title of "elder's duties," apparently. Kuruna insisted that she'd done plenty after saving her from the rockslide, but that didn't help.

_Maybe I'll read more about the dragons, so that I can give Ondorus his book back…_

As she passed Kuruna's tent, the owl sitting on the perch just outside of it hooted at her.

"Hello, Owlvin," she said. "Or is it Owlsy? …No, Owlvin," she decided, sniffing the air. While the owl brothers looked identical in every way, they smelled slightly different to the wolf's sensitive nose. The two birds served as a sort of mailbox for the residents of the settlement.

Owlvin pulled a piece of paper out from under his wing, offering it to Michaela.

"For me?" Michaela asked. Owlvin nodded. "Just drop it. I don't have any hands, anyway."

The owl let the paper fall to the ground, and Michaela leaned forward to read the messy handwriting on it.

_Come here! Right now! Hurry! –Zaid_

_What's so urgent? _Michaela wondered, folding the paper as best as she could and placing it in the garbage bin beneath Owlvin's perch.

"Thanks, Owlvin," she said. The owl hooted cheerfully in response as the wolf turned and headed back towards Zaid's tent.

She ducked through the tent flap and glanced around. The place was a mess! Random junk was strewn everywhere, and in the middle of it all sat Zaid.

"Fiiiiinally!" he said. "How long were you gonna keep me waiting?"

"Sorry…" Michaela said, carefully stepping over some old pieces of armor.

"There's a lot of stuff that this camp needs," Zaid continued. "If you're gonna hang out here, you're gonna have to start pulling your weight! Just watch me and follow my lead and you'll pick things up."

_Hopefully better than he picks his possessions up, _the wolf thought.

"I _do _want to pull my own weight!" she protested. "But didn't you want something? Something that required me to hurry?"

"Oh, that's right!" the dwarf exclaimed. "I want you to get three pineapples for me. You can get them from the piney monsters if you beat up enough of them. Go get 'em!"

Michaela frowned slightly, but walked back out of the tent.

"Three pineapples…" she muttered. "He can't get them himself? Well, okay, then…"

_At least I'll be doing something useful! _she added silently as she walked back out of the settlement and set off at a light trot towards the bone bridge. That was where pineys hung out, she'd learned recently. Mostly they just hopped around and jabbered at each other. The idea of beating them up wasn't very appealing.

_Maybe I'll just grab a pineapple that they've left lying around or something…_

Michaela reached the bone bridge without incident. The goblins between the settlement and the river tended to leave her alone after that first day, which was okay with her.

_What sort of person was I before, that I know how to fight so well? I wish I could remember something, anything about who I am…!_

There were a few pineys wandering around on the shores of the bone bridge's river, along with a few slimes. Michaela saw that they were collecting pineapples in a small pile in a little cave in the canyon wall. She crept over while their backs were turned and rolled three pineapples out of the cave. For a moment she hesitated, puzzling out how she would carry them back, and then she took the ends of the pineapples' stems in her mouth.

She turned to leave, and then she stopped and stared out across the bone bridge, towards the opposite shore.

_That feeling's back again… What's out there? Is it a memory? I need to know…but how—?_

_Smack!_

An angry piney had just rolled along the shore, its momentum sending it right at Michaela's hindquarters. She fell forward with a grunt, bumping her nose against a rock but managing to hang on to the pineapples. The piney bounced back for another shot, and the wolf scrambled to her feet and hurried away.

_Ouch… _she thought. _That smarts. At both ends, too… Who would've thought that going to fetch pineapples could be so dangerous?_

By the time she reached Zaid's tent again, the pains in her nose and rear had died away.

"Wow!" Zaid exclaimed, grabbing the pineapples from her. "Fantastic job! You're a real lifesaver!"

"That's a pretty strong reaction for a few pineapples," Michaela commented.

"Hey, don't sell yourself short," said Zaid. "That was no easy task! And just in time—"

"Are you here, Zaid?"

Wolf and dwarf turned to see Kuruna entering the tent.

"Kuruna!" Zaid hurried up to her. "Here…" he said, handing her the pineapples.

"Oh! Pineapples!" said Kuruna. "Why are you giving me this?"

"What do you mean, 'why'?" said Zaid. "You mentioned that you wanted some pineapple! So I got 'em for you!"

_Wait, what? _Michaela thought.

"You… You remembered me saying that?" Kuruna said, looking touched.

"Of course!" Zaid said, blushing slightly. Michaela just stared.

_He's such a suck-up… or… Wait, hold on a sec…!_

Kuruna glanced at Michaela and hesitated.

"Um, Zaid…"

"Yeah?" the dwarf asked.

"Do you mind if I share some of this?"

"Well… if you want to… But why?"

"I can't eat all of this by myself," the univir elder said with a little smile. "And food always tastes better when you share it with friends."

"O-Oh, yeah! Totally! I was just thinking the same thing!" Zaid stammered as Kuruna handed one of the pineapples back to him.

"Here," said Kuruna, setting the other pineapple at Michaela's feet.

"Thanks!" said Michaela, not sure whether to laugh or not.

Kuruna turned back to Zaid.

"Well, I wanted to see you, but I didn't mean to interrupt," she said. "I'll come back later. Thank you for the pineapple, Zaid."

"No problem! Any time!" Zaid replied as Kuruna turned and left the tent.

"You…" Michaela said, still not sure whether to be annoyed or amused.

When Zaid just shrugged awkwardly in response, amusement won out, and the wolf burst into laughter.

"Zaid, you have a crush on Kuruna!"

"S-So what if I do?" the dwarf stammered. "It's none of your business. Besides, can you blame me? She's kind and smart, and she's the only good-looking girl around…"

Michaela stopped laughing very abruptly and frowned. Zaid's eyes widened, and he hurriedly attempted to backtrack.

"Hey, I… I didn't mean that the way it sounded…"

"Sure you didn't," said the wolf as she walked over to the entryway of the tent. "I'm going for a walk, if anyone asks."

"O-Okay… Hey, you forgot your pineapple!" Zaid called.

"Keep it," Michaela replied. "And get it yourself next time."

She left the settlement for the third time that day, a bit disgruntled.

_It doesn't matter how attractive he finds wolves. I couldn't care less! …Well, maybe I do care, just a bit…_

Michaela hadn't been paying much attention to where she was going. Suddenly, she realized that she was back at the bone bridge, and that the pineys and slimes had moved on, leaving the area deserted. The wolf hesitated, front paws on the huge spine.

_What are humans like, anyway? Ondorus said that they were a lot like univir, but Kuruna says they're evil savages…and why do I feel like something just outside of the desert is calling to me? Something so familiar…but I don't remember!_

_Well, there's only one way to find out!_

Michaela crossed the bridge with increased determination, running down the short cavern and past the entrance that led to the Star Dunes, and out of the desert.

Immediately, the scenery changed. Instead of sand beneath her and rock at her sides, there was dirt beneath her and trees lining the path through the woods. The temperature, while still warm, was comfortably cooler. The abrupt climate shift was a bit disconcerting, but Michaela shrugged it off. The woods were nice.

_I like trees. There were trees back home, in… Oh, why can't I remember?_

Soon, the path forked. Michaela looked ahead and saw a white surface in the distance, and to the right the trees opened into a wide clearing. She glanced back and forth, thinking.

_Which way is the human town? …I feel like I should go this way._

The wolf turned to the right and stepped out of the shady trees and into bright sunlight and a very pretty courtyard. Pink-blossomed cherry trees lined the outer edge of the circular space, and to the left…

Michaela's eyes widened. She was standing before the largest tree that she had ever seen! Its trunk was wide enough to hold the entire Univir Settlement, and its leafy branches seemed to touch the sky. There was also a staircase leading up to a door in the trunk, and two wide spaces were between the roots of the tree, like openings to a cave.

_Whoa… I wonder what's in there._

Michaela sniffed. The strange scent from the bone bridge was here, its source nearby… Following her nose, she turned and walked down one of the paths leading away from the enormous tree. She soon reached another open area. This one had three buildings in it. The middle building had lots of sweet-smelling flowers and some sort of board with papers pinned to it in front of it. That same smell definitely came from the buildings, but no one was around…

Suddenly, the door of the farthest house opened, and a figure stepped out. Her sky-blue eyes widened when she saw the wolf, and for a few moments they both just stared at each other. Somehow, Michaela knew that the figure in front of her was a human, Kuruna's "Hornless." The human _did _look a lot like a univir, but she didn't have a horn, and her ears were only slightly pointed at the tips. Her bright-scarlet hair was just as long as the univir's, however, and her long pink coat reminded Michaela of the robes that the univir wore.

The human gave the wolf a little smile.

"Go back to the forest," she said in a soft, low voice.

_She even _talks _like the univir… Maybe Kuruna's—_

The front door of the house with the flowers opened just then, and another human stepped out. This one had shorter, orange hair and a flowery dress. She had a merry grin on her face, like someone had just told her a joke. However, the instant that her eyes landed upon the wolf, the smile vanished and she screamed.

The piercing sound jolted Michaela out of her state of complacency, and she crouched to the ground, snarling at the human girl.

_Stay back!_

There were hurried footsteps from inside the house, and an older, wrinkled human came running out.

"Shara! Are you—? Monster!"

The old man pushed the girl behind him and took a threatening step towards Michaela.

"Out, fiend!" he barked.

Michaela snarled again, trying to edge her way back towards the path to the big tree and the desert without letting the angry human out of her sight. He looked ready to hurt her, and it was scary.

The door of the house behind her nearly hit her tail as it too swung open.

"What's going—? Oh!"

_I'm trapped…! _Michaela howled in fear and alarm and ran in the only direction that was left open to her: further into the human town.

Soon she was confronted with more buildings, more humans, and yet another fork in the road. She chose the left path, hoping that it would lead her far away from the alarmed shouts and running footsteps. It didn't, and so she continued to run, now hopelessly lost.

Michaela was so distracted that she nearly ran into the human standing in her way. She leapt back with a yelp and a snarl to see that it was the red-haired girl from before.

"Please trust me," said the girl. "Hide in here! I'll send them away."

Michaela glanced suspiciously in the direction that the girl was pointing. Somehow, she'd ended up back by the huge tree, and the girl wanted her to go into one of the cave-like openings.

She could hear shouts behind her…

"Please trust me," the human said again. "I don't want them to hurt you."

Michaela hesitated. _Could _she trust this girl? Or should she try to cross the space between here and the desert before the humans caught her, or followed her back to the settlement, to the univir…

She turned and quickly crept under the tree. The short tunnel opened into a wide space, but she was in no position to explore or observe. The wolf crouched down in a patch of tall, colorful grass behind a tree stump and waited.

"Where'd it go?"

Michaela shuddered at that voice. It was the scary old man.

"It ran off towards Vale," the red-haired girl replied, her voice curt.

"I don't want it wandering around town, Wells," another voice said. _A woman? _Michaela peeked over the tree stump. The woman had long, black hair and was holding a slender longsword. Michaela shuddered again and ducked out of sight.

"It will scare the customers," the woman continued. There were other voices making remarks of assent, but Michaela didn't dare peek again to see who was there.

"…It won't come back," the girl said, still in the cold, curt voice. "Not after you scared it like that."

"Hmph," the old man muttered. "It better not come back. And if it does…"

His voice trailed off.

_There's an unspoken threat there… _Michaela thought. _It was a bad idea to come here! Feeling or no feeling, I should have stayed in the desert!_

There were general footsteps and muttering as the humans went their separate ways. Michaela stayed hidden in the grass.

"…Are you there?" the red-haired girl called softly, entering the space under the tree.

The wolf slowly stood up and shook dirt and grass out of her fur. She stared up at the girl with her teal eyes, and the girl smiled back.

"They're gone," she said, sitting down on the tree stump. "I'd stay away from here, if I were you. Humans…don't like monsters very much."

_I can see that…_

_Something strange…_

"I hope that you aren't really from Vale," the girl continued. "Otherwise, I just directed them to your home…but they won't go looking for you, I don't think…"

_It's the smell, _Michaela realized. _She smells like a human, but…there's something else, too. Something good… I remember it from somewhere… What is it?_

_No. I've had enough of chasing mysteries. It's too dangerous, pursuing things here._

_But this girl…_

Michaela stepped forward and placed her head in the girl's lap.

_Thank you, _she thought.

"Oh…" the girl gasped. But then she smiled again and stroked the wolf's head.

"…You stay far away from here, okay?" she said. "Away from this town…and from me. Where you'll be safe…"

Her voice trailed off, and then she sighed and stood up, gently shifting Michaela aside. She walked out from under the tree and glanced around.

"All clear," she said. "You can go now."

Michaela walked past her, back towards the trees. She turned back just before she entered the woods to see that the girl was still watching her, a very sad look on her face.

The wolf turned away and headed back down the path and into the heat of the desert, with quite a few things on her mind, none of which seemed to really fit together.


	4. Bones and Flowers

**A.N.: **I don't know _why_ this chapter took so darn long to write…

**XXX**

The next day, Michaela was still very confused, but she was determined to act as though nothing had happened. If anyone found out where her "walk" had taken her… It could end badly.

"There you are, perfect timing!" Kuruna said, coming out of her tent and seeing the wolf. "I wanted to ask you to run an errand for me."

"An errand?" Michaela repeated.

"Yes, an errand," said the univir elder. "Can you do it? You do not have to if you do not want to…"

"That's okay," said the wolf. "I'll do it. But what is 'it'?"

"Just a few things that I need you to fetch," said Kuruna. "They're in areas that I have not shown you yet, so I've arranged for Zaid to accompany you."

_Zaid? _Michaela hadn't spoken to him since he'd sent her for pineapples. When she'd returned to the settlement after her misadventure in the human town, she'd been so preoccupied that she'd brushed right by him without acknowledging his presence. _Does he think I'm still angry? I'm not, not really…_

"Okay," she said.

"Good," Kuruna replied. "Zaid is waiting in his tent, I think."

Michaela nodded and headed over to Zaid's tent, hesitating for just a moment before entering.

"Zaid?"

There was no immediate response. Sitting in the midst of the mess that was his room, the dwarf was bent over his sword, rubbing a small stone against the blade.

"You sharpen that thing often?" Michaela asked.

"You never know when you're going to need a weapon," said Zaid. "That's why I keep Mr. Slice nice and sharp."

"You named your sword?"

"How are you supposed to fight well without naming your buddy?" Zaid asked, setting the stone down and glancing over at the wolf.

Michaela shrugged. "I wouldn't know. I've never used a weapon."

The instant the words were out of her mouth, she knew them to be false.

_I _have _used a weapon; I know I have…but how? I have paws, not hands. That doesn't make sense._

"Kuruna told me everything," said Zaid. "You ready to go?"

"Yeah, I'm ready," Michaela replied, still trying to figure out how she could have used a weapon.

"First we're going to get some dragon bones!" Zaid said, standing up and sheathing his sword. "We'll find them in the southeast part of the desert. Let's go!"

The wolf followed the dwarf out of his tent and out of the settlement, down through the desert canyons.

"So, did there used to be dragons around here, that we'll be able to find their bones?" she asked.

Zaid shrugged. "Ondorus told me once about dragons once living around here, but I don't remember much. Basically, it's _something_ big that used to live around here. Dragon or not, that's what it's called."

"I see…"

_I wonder if the dragon bones are from one of the four Elder Dragons, _Michaela thought. _But the book said that they were supposed to be immortal…_

They continued on without talking. Michaela noticed that Zaid's hand never strayed very far from the hilt of his sword.

"You think we'll run into trouble?" Michaela asked.

"Possibly," Zaid replied. "The monsters around here aren't so friendly. Things like trolls and tomato ghosts…"

"Tomato ghosts?" Michaela laughed. "You're _serious?_"

"Of course, I'm serious!" said Zaid, indignantly. "One will show up at some point, and then you'll see."

"Are you scared of haunted tomatoes, Zaid?" Michaela teased. Zaid frowned and said nothing.

Michaela spent the next few minutes trying to figure out what a ghost of a tomato would look like and chuckling to herself.

The canyon opened into a wide, rocky area, with paths leading to the right and left at the far side of the expanse. Several large, yellow-skinned monsters were lazing about, some holding enormous hammers.

"Trolls," Zaid muttered, fingering his sword. "This will be tricky…"

"If we stay near the edge, will they ignore us?" Michaela asked.

"Probably not."

"It's worth a shot, isn't it? I don't want to get any closer to those hammers than I have to…"

"Well, all right. We'll try to sneak by them."

Dwarf and wolf crept along the rock wall, trying to stay as quiet as possible to avoid waking the dozing trolls. Their luck held out until they were just a few yards from the left path. That was when something ragged and purple with an enormous, round, bright-red head appeared out of nowhere in front of Michaela, who leapt backwards with a shriek.

Instantly, three trolls opened their eyes and sat up straight. The red-headed purple thing cackled and vanished again as they got to their feet, snarling to each other, one of them swinging its hammer threateningly.

"Oh, crud!" Zaid yelped. "Run, Michaela!"

Not needing to be told twice, the wolf sprinted for the side path, Zaid close behind her.

The hammer troll caught up with them first. As it raised its weapon, Zaid's sword slashed at its feet, and it stumbled backwards, yowling in anger and pain. The other trolls stopped, growling warily at the receding monsters.

When it was clear that they were no longer being pursued, Michaela and Zaid stopped to catch their breath.

"What…" Michaela gasped. "What _was _that?"

"A tomato ghost," Zaid replied.

Michaela looked up at him, still panting.

"Really."

"Yep," said Zaid.

There was a pause, and then Michaela burst into laughter. Zaid joined in, and the two monsters sat there, laughing, for several minutes, until the hilarity and relief slowly died away.

"Alright," Zaid said, getting back to his feet. "Let's get what we came for."

"Dragon bones," said Michaela. "And they are where?"

"Right over there."

Michaela looked where Zaid was pointing, and her eyes widened. There indeed was an enormous skeleton lying there, scoured white and half-buried by the sand. As they approached the skeleton, Michaela marveled at the size of the limbs, claws, and teeth.

"I really hope there aren't any more of whatever-it-was wandering around," she said.

"Never seen one," said Zaid. "A guy like this would be pretty hard to miss, though!"

Michaela nodded. "What kind of bone do we need?"

"Something off of the head should be good."

Michaela glanced nervously up at the skeletal face, which was in a prime position to chomp down on her.

_Don't be stupid, _she thought. _It's only a pile of bones! It can't hurt you._

One of the teeth looked loose. Michaela clamped her jaws around it and tugged, and the bone came free. She turned back to Zaid.

"Isf thif good?" she mumbled around the large obstruction in her mouth.

"Bingo!" said Zaid. "Let's go take it to Kuruna."

Michaela nodded and proffered the bone to Zaid, who stepped backwards in disgust.

"I'm not taking _that!_" he said. "Not after it's been in your mouth!"

Michaela rolled her eyes and headed back towards the troll area.

They reached the settlement again without incident, the trolls giving them a wide berth this time, and the tomato ghost not making another appearance. Kuruna was standing outside of her tent when they reached it, and she took the bone from Michaela's mouth without complaint.

"Thank you," the univir elder said. "I only need the cactus flower now."

"The cactus flower?" Michaela repeated, working her jaw out of the uncomfortable position it had been in while holding the rather large bone.

"Yes, it's a flower that grows on a giant cactus southwest of here," said Kuruna.

"And that's what we need to get?" said Michaela. "Okay!"

"Thank you," Kuruna said again. "I'm counting on you, too, Zaid," she added.

"No problem!" said Zaid. "You've got the right dwarf for the job! Let's go, Michaela."

Michaela turned to leave, but hesitated.

"Does this mean that we have to go through the trolls' hangout again?" she asked.

"Yes," Kuruna said. "What's the matter with that?"

Michaela and Zaid glanced at each other.

"Nothing," they chorused.

Kuruna raised an eyebrow but said nothing as the wolf and dwarf left the settlement for the second time that day.

"We'll just…run really quickly this time," Zaid said.

Michaela nodded. "Agreed."

They sprinted across the open space, this time reaching their destination without pursuit. The trolls merely grunted angrily as they passed.

The only other monsters around were a few weeguls, who seemed content to fly overhead and watch the two newcomers from atop the rocks.

"I don't like the look of those talons…" Michaela muttered, watching one preening its dark magenta wings.

"Their beaks are pretty sharp, too," Zaid said. "They have nests up in these little caves in the rocks, but trying to get their eggs is a really bad idea. Don't ask."

Michaela had been curious as to exactly how the dwarf knew that trying to get weegul eggs was a bad idea, but as they turned a corner she was distracted from her curiosity by the sight of the enormous, dark green cactus, towering nearly as high as the canyon walls, topped by a bright yellow flower.

"That's…a really big cactus," she muttered.

"Yep," said Zaid. "And up there's the cactus flower."

"How do we get it down?" Michaela wondered.

Zaid shrugged. "I guess I'll climb up…"

"Be careful of the spines," Michaela cautioned as Zaid approached the cactus, replacing his sword in its scabbard and beginning to pull himself up the branches of the prickly, green plant.

There wasn't much for Michaela to see in this dead-end of the canyon except for a small patch of weeds, which seemed a bit out-of-place in the desert. She took a step in the direction of the weeds to get a closer look, only for the ground to suddenly dip beneath her. The wolf looked down at her paws to see that she had stepped into a very large three-toed footprint.

_What in the world…?_

Michaela looked around. There were more footprints, as though some large creature—_A bird? A lizard?_—had recently passed through the area, stalking around the cactus before leaving again. Michaela sniffed the footprint. There didn't seem to be a scent around it, which was strange… _What doesn't leave a smell?_

"Got it!"

She looked up to see Zaid running back over to her, putting the cactus flower into one of his pockets.

"Hey, Zaid…" she said. "These footprints are pretty big. Do you know what animal they belong to?"

Zaid shrugged. "Who cares? I'm not an animal expert."

"I see…"

Michaela gave the footprints one last curious sniff.

"Well, let's go, then," she said, turning back towards the settlement.

"Um, Michaela…"

"Yes?" the wolf replied, glancing back at the dwarf, who looked a bit uncomfortable.

"Look, about what I said yesterday," he said. "I didn't mean—"

"Forget it," Michaela cut him off.

"What?"

"It was a stupid thing to say," Michaela explained. "But that's all it was. It's in the past now."

"Oh, good!" Zaid said, looking very relieved. "Well, then, let's get back to the settlement!"

They were just passing the weeguls when the ground began to shake, like something huge was stomping its feet. The weeguls took to the sky, screeching in alarm as a roar echoed through the canyon.

"What was that?" Zaid exclaimed.

"I don't like the sound of that…" Michaela said. "We better hurry!"

The two monsters ran as fast as they could towards the settlement.


	5. Skeletons and Transformations

The rumbling and roaring only became louder and more frequent as Michaela and Zaid reentered the settlement. They ran past the tents to find Kuruna and Ondorus standing by the settlement's northern entryway, which was now blocked by a stone gate.

"What's happened?" Michaela demanded.

"We've been attacked!" Kuruna replied as yet another roar shook the air. "A monster stormed the settlement gates!"

There was a rumbling sound, and then the gate trembled as something slammed into the opposite side. Pieces of rock chipped off and fell to the ground.

"The gate won't hold much longer…" Ondorus said, and as he looked at Kuruna, they had equally grave expressions on their faces.

Kuruna looked back at the gate. "Can we not avoid a fight?" she whispered.

The univir elder walked up to the gate and began to push it open.

"Kuruna!" Zaid ran up and placed a hand on Kuruna's arm. "It's dangerous!"

"I am the elder of this settlement," Kuruna said, gently shoving his hand away. "It's my duty to protect everyone."

She turned her head to face Ondorus and Michaela.

"Please, escape while you can," she said.

Then she pushed again on the gate until it opened just enough for her to squeeze through. It shuddered and cracked as the creature on the other side attacked again.

_Whatever's out there, it's dangerous… _Michaela thought. _But somehow I feel like I could…like I could take it on!_

"Wait!" Michaela exclaimed suddenly, stepping up beside Kuruna. "Leave this to me."

Kuruna gaped. "What are you talking about?"

"I'll be fine!" said the wolf. "I'm pretty confident in my own strength… I just feel as though I can do this!"

Kuruna hesitated.

"If you believe that you can defend the settlement… Then I leave this to you," she finally said.

"Count me in, too!" Zaid said. "We'll make this thing wish it had never been born!"

A long crack split the middle of the gate.

"Kuruna, hurry!" Ondorus urged, extending his hand. Kuruna took it.

"Please be careful!" she called as they backed away from the gate, retreating to the relative safety of the tents.

Dwarf and wolf looked at each other.

"Let's do this," Zaid said. Michaela nodded, and the two of them edged around the gate.

No creature stood in the immediate canyon, but the ground was littered with what appeared to be stone spikes. Michaela and Zaid walked forward until they reached a large open area.

"What _is _that?" Michaela exclaimed, staring at the massive creature that stood in the center of the area. The creature was four-legged and had a tail, like a lizard's, but spiked. However, the creature had no skin, just white bone. Inside of its ribcage, something blue was glowing_…its heart? So this is the creature with no scent…_

"It looks like the dragon bones!" Zaid gasped. "Well, whatever it is, Kuruna needs our help, so let's go!"

He charged at the creature, swinging his sword at its leg. The creature roared and swung its tail at him, knocking him backwards.

"Zaid!"

Michaela leapt at the creature, her teeth locking around one of its legs. It thrashed and snapped at her, but she held tight, and then suddenly the leg simply came disconnected from the creature's torso, and it shattered when it hit the ground.

"We can take it apart!" Michaela shouted to Zaid as she got back to her feet and dodged away from the creature's bites.

"Got it!" the dwarf shouted in response, again charging the creature, this time tackling its tail, which also fell away. The two monsters hit and tore at the creature, pulling it to pieces. Michaela ended up shoving the head off of its neck, but it snapped at her as it fell to the ground, causing her to have to jump away.

Zaid kicked the neck pieces into the sand, and then turned to all that was left of the creature: a blue and purple cube which hovered eerily in the air, glowing faintly. The dwarf slashed at it with his sword, leaving cuts in its smooth surface.

The cube began to glow more brightly, and something about it made Michaela's fur stand on end.

_That's bad. I just know it. That's really, really bad…!_

"Zaid!" she shouted. "Run!"

"Don't worry about it, Michaela!" Zaid replied. "This dwarf has got everything under—"

A beam of blue light shot out of the cube, crackling as it hit Zaid in the chest, sending him flying head over heels. The dwarf hit the canyon wall and fell to the ground in an unmoving heap.

"Zaid! _Zaid!_" Michaela screeched, but there was no response. She turned back to the cube, and she stared as the bone pieces reformed around it, recreating the creature.

"Oh, that is _not _good…!" she muttered as the creature roared and charged at her.

Michaela ducked under its belly, snatching at its ribs, which fell to the ground around her, and running out from under its tail, trying to distance herself from the creature.

There was a sharp pain in her back, and she yelped as she tumbled to the ground. Stone spikes fell on and around her, somehow thrown by the creature. Michaela pulled herself back to her feet, aching all over from the impacts.

_It'll just keep coming if I don't stop it! _she thought, forcing herself to run back towards the creature although every inch of her being longed to run away to safety.

Michaela leapt and dodged, snatching at bone and ducking around spikes, and after several exhausting minutes the creature was once again a scattered pile of shards and a floating cube. She sunk her teeth into the cube and shoved it into the ground, clawing at it, trying to rip it apart. It began to glow brightly again, and so she pressed her claws deep into its core and pulled…

The cube shuddered, and its glow flickered, and then there was a bright light which blinded the wolf and the sound of rushing wind…

When Michaela's vision cleared, the creature was gone.

She heaved a sigh of relief, and then her legs buckled and she collapsed to the ground. The warm sand chafed against her aching body, but she couldn't be bothered to move…

"Michaela! Comrade!"

Michaela forced herself to her feet at Kuruna's call.

"I'm fine," she replied. "Help Zaid."

Kuruna nodded and hurried to the dwarf's side, and Michaela struggled to keep her footing as the world spun around her.

"Here," Ondorus's soft, low voice spoke from somewhere inside all of the blurriness. He placed his hand on her head, and Michaela sighed again as the pain eased.

"Thanks, Ondorus," she said, smiling up at him through the familiar white glow of healing magic. "I feel a lot better now."

"Good," said the univir. "I'm glad… That was quite a skirmish."

"Yeah," Michaela agreed. "That thing was really tough…but it's back in the Forest of Beginnings now."

There was a moan, and they turned to see Kuruna helping Zaid to sit upright.

"What… What happened?" the dwarf asked, blinking at the others.

"It's over," Michaela said. "The creature's gone."

"Oh," said Zaid. "Well, that's good."

"But why did it attack us at all?" Kuruna wondered aloud.

"Hmm…" Ondorus frowned slightly. "Did anyone recently pick a cactus flower?"

"A cactus flower…?" Kuruna repeated, standing up. "Yes, I'd just sent Zaid and Michaela to get it for me. What about it?"

"That monster is drawn to the cactus flower," Ondorus explained. "It actually derives its sustenance from it. That must be the reason why it attacked."

"What?" Kuruna gasped. "So that was a Skelefang? I thought they were all extinct…"

"Apparently not…" Michaela said, looking around the area, which had signs of the fight all over it, from the stone spikes to rips in the sand.

"Had I known there was one out there, I would have left that flower alone," Kuruna said. "Michaela, Zaid, I'm sorry. I've caused you so much trouble."

"Hey, it's all right!" Zaid said, shakily standing up.

"Yeah, don't worry about it," Michaela agreed. "You couldn't have known that this would happen. Besides, it's all over now."

Kuruna smiled. "Well, I do still need that cactus flower, if you have it."

Michaela looked over at the dwarf. "Zaid?"

Zaid reached into his pocket and pulled out the flower, which was still intact, although it was a bit crumpled and bedraggled.

"There you go," he said, handing it to Kuruna.

"Now I have both," Kuruna said. "Thank you!"

"No problem!" Zaid said, swaying slightly.

"You should go rest," Kuruna said, frowning slightly in concern. "I'm not certain that I completely healed your wounds…"

"Hey, I'm fine!" Zaid insisted. He took a step and stumbled, but Kuruna grabbed him before he hit the ground.

"Here, let me help you…" she said, draping his arm over her shoulders and half-supporting, half-dragging him back into the settlement.

"Is he always so stubborn?" Michaela asked Ondorus.

"Usually," the univir replied. "But you can count on him when it matters."

Michaela nodded, but her mind was on something else.

"That creature…" she said. "The Skelefang. There was something strange about it… Something familiar, almost. I knew how dangerous its attacks were, but also that I could beat it. But I can't have met it before, if they're supposed to be extinct, right?" She looked up at Ondorus. "Right?"

Ondorus shrugged. "I don't know," he said. "Perhaps you met it in battle once before… Perhaps, during your earlier conflict with it, your memory was injured."

"That could be…" Michaela frowned. "I just wish that I could remember!"

"I'm sure that your memories will return with time," Ondorus said reassuringly. "In the meantime…there's something that I wanted to tell you about."

"What's that?" Michaela asked.

"Shortly after you arrived in the settlement, I discovered a strange orb, just north of here," Ondorus said. "Neither Kuruna nor I know where it came from. I can't find any reference to something like it in any of my books, and neither of us could move it from where it sits. It's very strange."

"It sounds very strange," Michaela agreed. "Do you think it would be okay if I took a look at this orb?"

"I don't see why not," said Ondorus. "I should go and check on Kuruna and Zaid. Please let me know if you discover anything."

"Okay."

The univir walked back into the settlement, while the wolf turned and wandered across the area, towards a space in the canyon wall that she hadn't noticed during the fight. She walked down the path, and soon came out into a smaller, round area. There was a short pedestal in the middle of the area, upon which sat a faintly glowing sphere. It was a clear, glasslike ball, which had swirls of color inside, deep blues and bright oranges, like the desert sky and sand.

_That must be the orb, _Michaela thought. _It looks like… It looks strangely familiar… I feel like I should touch it._

The wolf walked up to the pedestal and hesitated.

_Is it really wise to just touch an unknown object? But it feels so right…and Ondorus didn't say anything about it being dangerous, just strange and unmovable…_

She leaned forward and gently nudged the orb with her nose. There was a flash, and Michaela gasped as the orb slowly rose into the air, hovered for a moment, and then rushed downward at her, coming into contact with her chest and merging with her body.

…

_**The round, purple gem in her palm was tiny and unassuming, but it seemed to pulse with a strange power.**_

"_**What is it, Dad?" Michaela asked, looking up at the large, golden wolf in front of her.**_

"_**This spell will activate your monster blood and let you transform," the wolf replied. "Give it a try."**_

"_**What do I do?"**_

"_**Think about wolves," said the wolf. "Think about having fur and four legs, of running through the trees and howling at the moon, of smells shaping the world around you…"**_

"_**Okay…"**_

_**Michaela closed her eyes and focused, thinking of her father, her non-human father, and of everything that she knew he was, and could do…**_

_**There was a rushing sensation throughout her body, and when she opened her eyes again and looked down at herself, she saw golden legs that ended in paws.**_

"_**Wow! It worked!" she exclaimed. "Look at me, Dad! I'm a wolf, just like you!"**_

"_**You are indeed," her father laughed.**_

"_**Mom!" Michaela called, looking up at the house. "Mom! Take a look at this!"**_

_**A smiling face appeared in the window, a female human face.**_

"_**You did it!" the woman said. "How wonderful!"**_

…

_That's right…! _Michaela thought. _I'm half human and half monster! And this spell, this gem at my neck lets me transform!_

_Think of humans…_

There was a flash, and a rushing sensation throughout her body, and then Michaela was standing on two legs, and she was staring down at her fingered hands, and the clothes covering her body.

"This is so weird…" she muttered. "…but it's not, at the same time. This is normal. I was born this way."

Her mind flashed back to the face in the window, the face that had smiled at her.

_My mother… My father married a human… But the humans in the town hated me, they chased me…_

_Not all of them, _she corrected herself. _There was that one girl… The one who smelled so familiar…_

She touched the gem hanging from her neck and self-consciously glanced back towards the settlement.

_I probably shouldn't let anyone know that I'm half-human… _she thought. _Kuruna would kick me out for sure. I'll keep it to myself for now._

She transformed back into a wolf and sat down on the ground, looking at the pedestal.

_Touching that orb brought back some of my memories… But so much of my past is still blank! Maybe I can find more orbs like that one…_

Michaela stood up and went to go back to the settlement, when suddenly another thought occurred to her.

_Maybe… Maybe, if I go back to the town as a human instead of a wolf, they'll let me in! Maybe I can find whatever was calling me there…and maybe I can talk to that girl, and find out who she is!_


	6. Chipsqueek and Sharance

Michaela stepped into Ondorus's tent, taking care not to bite through or drool on the book held between her teeth. For a moment, she reflected on how much easier it would be to hold the volume in her hands as a human, but she quickly shoved the thought away. No one could know that she was half-human, no one.

"Ah, Michaela," Ondorus said. Next to his chair, Chirris the chipsqueek chirped a greeting. Michaela nodded, but she didn't dare move her mouth.

"Here, let me take that," the univir offered, walking over and carefully removing his book from her jaws.

"Thanks," Michaela said. "I hope I didn't leave any teeth marks."

"As far as I can tell, there are none," Ondorus assured her, turning the book over in his hands, inspecting the cover. "Did you enjoy it?"

"Oh, yes," Michaela said. "I sort of skimmed the second half, but I wanted to get it back to you."

"You may borrow my books for any length of time," Ondorus said, placing the book back on its shelf.

"Chip cheep, Chirrup?" squeaked Chirris.

"It was the one about the Elder Dragons," Ondorus replied.

"Cheep," said the chipsqueek.

"No, the other one."

Michaela shook her head. "I'm only hearing half of a conversation here…"

"Fortunately, Chirris and I can understand enough of each other's languages to converse while using our own," Ondorus said.

"How difficult is it to learn another language?" Michaela asked.

"It all depends on the person," the univir replied. "Some have more of a knack for it than others. I, for one, have never found it incredibly difficult."

"Could you teach me?"

"Chirrup!" said Chirris. "Cheep chip Chirra chip."

"Of course," Ondorus replied.

**XXX**

The chipsqueek language was made up of several tone variations on a few sounds, with changes in inflection to differentiate between words. Michaela caught on to the concept quickly, and by lunchtime she was able to understand most of what Chirris had to say, although she found herself unable to replicate most of the sounds.

"_You learn fast,_" Chirris squeaked.

"_Thank you_," the wolf replied, or at least that's what she _thought _that she'd said, but the chipsqueek's high-pitched laughter did not boost her confidence in her grasp of the language.

"You're doing just fine," Ondorus said in response to her discouraged expression. "It's only been one day. Languages are best learned through use; it is how we learn to speak, after all."

Michaela nodded. "Okay."

"_I'm hungry,_" Chirris said, walking over to the tent's doorway. "_Kuruna's cooking today, right? I'll go ask when lunch will be ready_."

"I'll go, too," Michaela said, standing up. "Are you coming, Ondorus?"

"You two go ahead," said the univir. "I'll catch up in a few minutes."

Chirris squeaked a good-bye and scampered out of the tent. Michaela went to follow her, but then her eyes fell on the bookshelf, and the brown volume, and she stopped.

"Michaela?" Ondorus said.

Michaela turned her head back towards the univir.

"Do you think that they're really out there?" she asked. "Fiersome and Terrable and the others?"

Ondorus shrugged. "It's possible. I've seen and read about too many strange and wondrous things to call anything impossible. But the Elder Dragons haven't been more than legends for generations, even univir generations, despite how long they are."

"I think it would be scary to meet a dragon," Michaela said. "Since they could destroy the world and all. The book made them sound invincible."

Ondorus nodded slowly. "But there are tales of ordinary people defeating them," he said. "Nothing is completely invincible."

Michaela shrugged. "I hope so," she said. "I'll see you at lunch?"

"See you then," the univir replied with a smile.

Michaela stepped out of the tent and turned towards Kuruna's, but then she stopped. Slowly, she turned to face the settlement entrance. Then she glanced around. No one was around; no one was watching.

_It would be easy to just slip away now, and go to the human town…_

_No, I told Ondorus that I would be here. I can't just disappear!_

…_but when am I going to get another chance like this?_

She glanced around again, decided, and ran off down the desert canyon.

**XXX**

Michaela reached the edge of the desert without incident, and then she stood in the trees just outside of the human town. She transformed into her human form.

"Here goes nothing…" she muttered as she stepped out of the trees and into the courtyard.

Once again she stood among the pink cherry trees and in front of the enormous tree, but this time she wasn't alone. Right at the foot of the stairs that led up to the door in the tree stood a human, staring at the leafy branches high above. It was the red-haired girl!

Michaela hesitated. So, she was here, as a human. Now what?

_Maybe I should talk to her…but what should I say?_

She slowly approached the red-haired girl. "Um, hello…"

The girl turned to face her, and there was a sort of blank glare on her face. It wasn't angry, exactly, but it was cold and unwelcoming. There was no trace of the kindness that Michaela had experienced as a wolf.

_Is this the wrong human? No, those are the same sky-blue eyes, the same long, scarlet hair, and even the same pink coat. She smells the same, too, but that's less clear… Maybe human sense of smell isn't as good as a wolf's…_

The girl turned away from Michaela and started to walk towards the path to her right.

"Hey, wait," Michaela said, but the girl ignored her.

"Good afternoon, Raven," a cheerful voice called. Another human girl came up the path that the red-haired girl had been about to go down. Michaela recognized her orange hair and flower-patterned dress. It was the girl who had screamed and set the scary old man on her.

"Afternoon…" the red-haired girl replied in a low mutter.

"I don't usually see you around here by the tree…" the flowery girl said. Then her dark blue eyes looked past the red-haired girl and landed on Michaela.

"Oh, I don't believe we've met!" she said, walking over to her. "What's your name?"

"Huh? M-My name…?" Michaela stammered, not sure what to do. "I-It's Michaela."

"Oh, what an intrepid name!" said the flowery girl.

"Intrepid…?" Michaela muttered. "I don't know about that…"

"Are you a traveler?" the flowery girl asked. "Where are you from?"

"Um… Sort of…" Michaela said, trying to think of a story.

_I should have thought this through before! Wait a second, if it worked once…_

"I don't know _where _I'm from, actually," Michaela said. "I've lost my memory, you see, and all I have is my name."

"Oh, that must be horrible!" the flowery girl gasped.

Michaela shrugged. "It's not too bad. I've just been wandering, and I ended up here. It seems as though there's something familiar about this place, but I'm not sure what…"

"Well, there's got to be something we can do…"the girl said, looking thoughtful for a few moments. Michaela took a furtive glance back over at the red-haired girl, who hadn't moved from her spot on the path and was watching with a thoroughly uninterested expression.

Suddenly, the flowery girl perked up, grinning widely and clapping her hands together excitedly.

"Wait! I've got an idea!" she said. Then she turned to the red-haired girl.

"Raven, could I ask you for a favor?" she asked.

The red-haired girl's eyes narrowed slightly. "A favor…?"

"Yes, I'll explain in a bit," the flowery girl said, turning back to Michaela. "You said your name was…Michaela, right?"

"Yes," Michaela said, wondering where this was going.

The flowery girl turned back to the red-haired girl.

"Now, Raven…about that favor… Could you take Michaela to the Sharance Tree?"

"What? Me…?"

"Yes, you," the flowery girl patiently confirmed. "Could you do that as a favor to me?"

There was a pause.

"…Okay…" the red-haired girl finally said, sounding as though she'd rather do anything but take Michaela to the Sharance Tree.

_Whatever that means…_

"Thank you very much, Raven," the flowery girl giggled, not seeming to have noticed her companion's dislike of the situation.

"Well then, I'm going to go back to my house to see my grandfather," she continued. "I'll come by to see you in a bit, Michaela."

"All right…" said Michaela, who was completely confused by this point.

The flowery girl turned and walked down the path, leaving Michaela alone with the red-haired girl, who walked back over to the tree staircase before turning back to face her.

"So, what's going on?" Michaela asked.

"This way," the girl—Raven, the flowery girl had called her?—said, turning and walking up the stairs. For lack of a better option, Michaela followed her up the stairs, all the way to the little door in the tree, hoping for some answers.

**XXX**

"Woah…" Michaela muttered as she stepped into the large room. The only phrase that she had to describe what she saw was _tree house, _but this was the most literal tree house she'd ever seen. The trunk was hollow, with an entire one-room house inside. It was much larger than her tent; she guessed that all three tents would still not have equaled the size of the space in this room. There was a bed off to the left, and a kitchen area directly in front of her, and even more space to her right, probably for a sitting room or something. Besides the bed, a fridge, a storage box, and a nightstand, the room was basically bare, making it seem even bigger.

Michaela turned back towards the door, noting that there was a ladder extending downward on each side.

"This is incredible," she said. "What is this place?"

Raven said nothing, turning towards the door again.

"Wait, where are you going?" Michaela asked. _What now? _she silently added.

"Yes," said the red-haired girl, not turning around. "My work is done."

"But…why did you bring me here?"

"I was asked to," said Raven. "Now that I've done so, I'm leaving."

"No, wait…" Michaela protested as Raven placed her hand on the doorknob. "Listen, I was—"

Suddenly the door flew open, and Raven nimbly stepped out of the way as the flowery girl ran inside.

"Sorry for making you wait, Michaela!" she said, panting slightly.

"Oh, I wasn't waiting long…" Michaela said uncertainly.

"So how do you like the house?" the flowery girl prompted, taking a few steps closer to her.

"It's very…unique," said Michaela. "I've seen houses outside of trees before, but never one inside…"

"Great!" the flowery girl exclaimed, looking absolutely delighted. "This is where you're going to be staying, so I'm glad you like it!"

"Yeah, it's… Wait, what? Staying here?" Michaela stammered. "What are you talking about?"

"Oh, didn't I say?" said the flowery girl. "You're going to be living here now, Michaela!"

"No, you didn't say!" said Michaela. "That's… That's very kind of you, but I don't need—"

"Nonsense!" the flowery girl cut her off with a decisive little wave of her hand. "You don't have a home; you said so yourself. But something familiar called you here, so there's got to be a reason that you _are _here. Maybe it was the sweet smell of our beautiful flowers! Besides, I've even got permission from my grandpa. He's the mayor of this town. So don't worry about a thing, and make yourself at home!"

"Look, thank you very much for your offer, but—"

"You're welcome! Oh, I'm Shara, by the way, and that's Raven over there. Let me welcome you to the town of Sharance. Here, let me explain all of the furnishings inside your house. Come, follow me!"

"Shara, listen to me, I already have a place…"

Michaela's protests seemed to fall on deaf ears as Shara dragged her around the large room, pointing out the storage box, fridge, calendar—she marked her and Raven's birthdays on it with a nearby pen, Spring 11th and 29th respectively, as Michaela noted that today was Spring 7th—bed, and diary, which was kept in the nightstand. Michaela stopped trying to argue around the point when Shara told her that she could get more kitchen supplies from the local chef. Maybe staying here, or at least _appearing _to stay here, would be a good excuse to wander around and find the thing that was calling to her.

At the moment, though, she just wanted a few minutes of quiet to get her mind around the sudden change of events and to decide just what she would do next. It seemed that Shara couldn't stop talking, prompting her to give her presents on her birthday, and to always remember to write in her diary, and how the bed was, in fact, a bed… The whole time, Raven stood silently by the front door, watching with that unreadable blank glare.

"Well, that concludes the tour of the basic furnishings of your house," Shara finally concluded. "Let's go downstairs next."

"What's downstairs?" Michaela asked.

"You'll see… Use that ladder there to get downstairs," Shara said, pointing at the nearest of the two ladders. "Please, after you."

Michaela glanced at Raven, who offered no advice, and then stepped onto the top rung of the ladder, starting to make her way down.


	7. Angry Orcs and Overbearing Humans

A cool breeze was the first thing that Michaela felt after her feet touched the ground. As she moved away from the ladder to allow the others to follow her, she turned to see where she was.

Above her, she could see sunlight shining through the massive roots of the tree, which curved overhead into a partial roof before touching ground again on the sides and opposite side. The under-tree area was as large as the tree was wide, and there were two large fields covering most of the ground, one to her right and one to her left. They were covered in many-colored weeds and branches.

_I hid down here, _Michaela remembered, looking down the fields to the two tunnel-like entrances. Yes, there was the tree stump that she had hidden behind after the humans had chased her two days before.

"These are the only fields in town," Shara said, stepping up behind her. "Crops can only grow here, under the Sharance Tree."

"Only under this tree, huh?" Michaela said as she turned to face the flowery girl. That fact seemed odd to her, but she wasn't sure why. Behind Shara, Raven was stepping away from the ladder, silently watching.

"Yes," Shara confirmed. "The fields are a little overgrown, but you can consider cleaning them up as part of your rent!"

Michaela looked around at the fields again. They really needed work…but could she "disappear" from the settlement for that long?

…_but there isn't much for me to do in the settlement, is there? Nothing useful, at least. I could be useful here instead of bored there, and find time to explore, too!_

"Let me show you how to till your fields," Shara was saying. She grabbed a rusty-looking hoe from near the ladder and handed it to Michaela. As she opened her mouth to speak again, she glanced over the other girl's shoulder. Her eyes widened in fear and she let out a short shriek.

"Eek! It's a monster!" she cried.

Michaela whirled around. A large, gray, two-legged creature was lumbering across the field towards them. It held a short club in one hand, and it snarled menacingly as it approached.

"_Orc,_" Raven muttered grimly.

"Will it attack?" Michaela whispered, glancing back at her. The red-haired girl gave the tiniest of shrugs in answer.

"Just back away slowly," she replied. "It won't fit through the ladder hole… Don't do anything to make it angry."

The three girls edged towards the ladder, but as Shara placed a hand on a rung, the orc let out a guttural roar and charged.

Shara screamed. Michaela placed both hands on the handle of the hoe and swung it at the orc, catching it in the chest and knocking it off-balance. It stumbled sideways, snarline angrily. Michaela was tempted to snarl back to warn it off, but she didn't think that she could do so effectively as a human.

The orc came at her again, and this time Michaela leapt forward to meet it. The hoe clanged against its head, right between the eyes. It fell forward, cutting off mid-roar as it disappeared in a flash of light.

Michaela sighed with a mixture of relief and sympathy. A hoe to the head couldn't have been the nicest of ways to be sent back to the Forest of Beginnings, but she hadn't seen any other option at the time…

"Michaela!" Shara called, running over to her. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine," Michaela replied. "Do attacks like that happen often?"

Shara shook her head. "The monsters around here are mostly gentle," she said. "Or, at least, they used to be… Lately, I've heard rumors of groups of violent monsters attacking people. And just the day before yesterday, a wolf walked right into town and started chasing people, just like that orc did."

Michaela nodded slowly. "Where's Raven?"

The red-haired girl had disappeared.

"I'm not sure," Shara said, looking around. "She was right next to me a moment ago, but—oh, no! More monsters!"

Indeed, two more orcs, each bigger than the first one had been, had come charging under the Sharance Tree.

"Get upstairs!" Michaela shouted, shoving Shara back towards the ladder. Then she turned to face the orcs, which had stopped a few feet on either side of her.

_What use is a hoe against _these _guys?_

"Look, do we really have to fight…?" she asked weakly. The orcs gave no sign that they had heard or understood, only swinging their clubs and bellowing fiercely.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a figure run in through one of the tunnels.

"Here, use these!" a deep voice shouted. "Catch!"

Two slender, shiny objects spun through the air towards Michaela. The girl dropped the hoe and reached up to catch them, realizing that they were swords, dual blades.

The instant her fingers closed around the hilts of the swords, a strange certainty flowed through her body. She _knew _how to use these weapons! Instinct taking over, she dropped into a defensive crouch. An orc swung at her, but she ducked under its club and sliced up at its belly. The orc yowled in pain and doubled over. Its companion leapt forward, swinging downward at Michaela, but she rolled out of the way and it hit the other orc instead. The wounded orc vanished in a flash of light, and the second whirled around to face Michaela, who had reassumed her defensive position, her knees slightly bent and her swords crossed in front of her. She parried the orc's furious swipes with little effort, and the moment she had an opening, she shoved both blades into the orc's chest, only stopping when the swords' hilts touched the monster's skin.

There was a flash and a rush of wind, and then the orc was gone, its final, angry yowls fading into the air.

Michaela, breathing hard, stared down at her hands. It had happened again, the subconscious fighting ability, just like against the goblins as a wolf.

_Who am I, that I know how to fight as both a human and a monster? Will was right; I must be a warrior… If I could only remember…!_

She looked up at the sound of footsteps through the weeds to see that three people had gathered around her: Shara, returning from the ladder, Raven, who had reappeared following the third person, a newcomer, an older man. He had unkempt black hair, pointed ears, and was wearing dark blue work-clothes and gloves. One eye was sealed shut by a long blue scar, but the other, which was silver, gazed at her seriously.

"What's your name?" he asked.

"Michaela."

The man nodded slowly, and then he smiled. "I'm Gaius. That was impressive; you're pretty strong."

"Thanks," said Michaela, smiling back. "And thanks for the weapons, too."

"You should thank Raven," Gaius corrected with a grin. "She came to get me when she saw the monsters."

"So _that's _where you went!" Michaela smiled at the red-haired girl. "Thank you, Raven."

Raven gave no response, her face as disconcertingly blank as ever. Then she turned and walked away, crossing the field and exiting through one of the tunnels.

"Did I do something wrong?" Michaela asked, looking back at Gaius.

"Don't worry about it," he reassured her. "That's just the way Raven is."

Michaela nodded slowly. "You're a dwarf, aren't you?" she said.

"Yes, I am." Gaius said, appearing surprised. "How did you know?"

Michaela shrugged. "The ears, the eyes… It was a guess. I've met a dwarf before."

"Have you? That's interesting; I haven't met another dwarf in a long time. Not many come to visit anymore… Anyway, I'm going to head back to work. I work at the weapon shop in town. Feel free to stop by."

"Okay," said Michaela. "Here, your swords."

"Keep them," Gaius said. "I can make more, and besides, it looks like you know how to use them. They're in good hands now. See you later, then."

"Thank you very much, Gaius!" said Shara. Gaius nodded in response, and then he turned and walked away.

"Are you hurt at all, Michaela?" Shara asked.

"No, I'm fine."

"Gaius was right," the flowery girl continued. "You are very strong! I was surprised at how well you held off those monsters."

"Thanks, I think…" Michaela replied.

"Well, why don't I teach you how to work on the farm now?" said Shara.

"Sure." _She'd probably show me even if I said no, _Michaela silently added.

**XXX**

About an hour later, Michaela had cleared some weeds, tilled a small portion of the field with the rusty hoe, sowed several toyherb seeds, which Shara promised would grow into beautiful flowers, and watered the seeds with an old waterpot that had been lying near the ladder as well and she had filled from a small pool between the two exit tunnels. Then she had collected some wood that someone had pre-cut into a usable log and placed it in the lumber shed, which was to the right of the ladder. Shara had also pointed out the shipping bin sitting in the center of the under-tree area, which could be used to sell things harvested from the field, while again encouraging Michaela to give her and the other townspeople plenty of presents.

"And that's basically all you need to know for farming, Michaela!" Shara finally said. "Good job. Here's some seeds and a bit of money for you, to get you started! There should be an old backpack in the storage box upstairs; you can put them in there."

"Thanks." Michaela took the seeds and gold coins, sliding them into her pocket for the time being.

"Anyway, please come by my house later, Michaela," Shara continued. "I have more to tell you, but I need to set up my shop first. If you go out from here, you'll come across three stores. The middle store is where I live, the flower shop. There are flowers all around it, so you should be able to tell which house is mine right away!"

"Okay," Michaela replied.

"By the way, I'm not being too overbearing, am I?"

Michaela fought back laughter. "No, of course not."

'_Overbearing' doesn't even _begin _to cover it! _she thought.

"That's good to hear! Well, I'll be going then."

"Okay. Thanks for everything, Shara."

"It was my pleasure. Well, If you'll excuse me, then."

Shara walked away. Michaela watched her go, and once the flowery girl was out of sight she leaned against the shipping bin, laughing.

_What a strange day it's been! _she thought. _That Shara… I don't know what she is, but she sure loves to arrange things. She must enjoy making bouquets!_

As her giggles died away, Michaela looked up through the roots at the sky. The sun had moved a good distance across the sky.

_It must be well past lunch… _Michaela thought. Her stomach rumbled, as though to confirm the fact. Her eyes fell on a patch of yellow grasses. As a wolf, she would have found them inedible, but as a human, they seemed appealing. Trusting her instincts, she picked the grass and put it in her mouth. It was a bit chewy and a little bitter, but a few handfuls were enough to satisfy her stomach.

_Ondorus and the others must be wondering where I've gone, _she thought. _Maybe I should go back… But I told Shara I'd meet her… Oh, what does that matter, she's just a human! …but my mother was human. There must have been some reason my father married her, some good reason. And Gaius was nice, and Raven…_

_I still don't know what Raven is. Is she what was calling me here, she who smelled so familiar? I have to know._

_Maybe I should stay, for just a bit longer. I'll see what else Shara has to say. Everything will be fine if I'm back at the settlement by nightfall._

_I hope._


	8. Neighbors and Worries

Michaela pushed open the door of the flower shop and stepped inside. There were flowers of every color set up on tables and shelves all over; the air in the room was filled with their beautiful scents. At the opposite end of the room were a shopping counter, a set of stairs, and a worktable. Michaela hesitated when she saw the man standing at the worktable. It was the old man who had threatened her the last time she'd come here.

_Relax, _she told herself. _You're a human, remember._

Shara was standing behind the counter.

"Welcome!" she called, walking over to Michaela. "I'm glad you came."

"This is a pretty impressive flower shop," Michaela commented.

Shara giggled. "Thanks. We sell flower seeds and some magic seeds too!"

"Magic seeds?" Michaela said, intrigued.

"Yes, they're—"

Shara's explanation was interrupted by a small figure suddenly dashing down the stairs and up to Michaela.

"Rarrr!" the little human roared, jumping forward and biting Michaela on the arm. Michaela yelped and backed away quickly, knocking over some empty flowerpots. The fierce little girl looked like a younger Shara, except that she had red eyes and shorter hair.

"Monica, stop it!" the old man snapped. "Shara, do something!"

The little girl tried to attack Michaela again, but Shara grabbed her by the collar of her dress.

"Got you!" she said. Then she started to drag the girl back towards the stairs.

"Hey, what are you doing?" the girl protested. "Let go!"

But Shara paid her complaints no mind as she hauled her upstairs again.

Michaela rolled up her sleeve; the girl's bite had left marks but had not drawn blood. Luckily, humans did not have sharp teeth.

"I'm sorry about all that," the old man said. "I don't think we've been properly introduced. My name is Wells. I'm Shara's grandfather, and the mayor of this town. You're Michaela, correct?"

"Yes, sir." Michaela bent down to pick up the flowerpots that she had upset.

"I hope you're happy with your new home," Wells continued.

_He's much nicer now that I'm a human… That's how it's been for everyone here so far, except Raven…_

"Yeah, it's great," Michaela said as she stood up again. "Thank you very much."

Then Shara came back down the stairs.

"I'm sorry about that," she said. "That's my sister, Monica. She doesn't like strangers."

"I'll say…" Michaela agreed.

"But I told her not to bite you again, so you should be all right," Shara continued positively. "Did I tell you about the bulletin board yet?"

"Bulletin board?" Michaela repeated. "No, you didn't."

"Okay. Let me tell you about it, then! It's in front of this house. Follow me."

Shara took Michaela back outside. The "bulletin board" was the board with papers pinned to it standing outside of the flower shop.

"When people need help with something, they'll post a request on the board," Shara explained. "You'll see all sorts of requests—sometimes just delivering packages to someone else, or something more complicated than that. You should check it every day to see if someone needs help! See, I have a request for you already. Right here."

The flowery girl tapped a piece of paper at the center of the board.

"You should do it now for practice!" she prompted.

Michaela took the piece of paper off the board.

"My first request: Come talk to me!" she read aloud.

Shara laughed. "Do it!"

_Really? _"…What do I need to do?" Michaela asked.

"Well, since this is your first request, let's start with something easy," said Shara. "Why don't you go around to everyone's house and introduce yourself?"

"Um, okay…" Michaela wondered if just walking into stranger's houses uninvited was normal for humans. _Well, I'll find out…_

"You're new in town, so you should get to know your neighbors. Once you've talked to everyone, come back and talk to me again."

"Okay."

**XXX**

By the end of the day, Michaela's mind was full of people and names. Inside the general store, she'd met Hazel and her daughter, Karina, who was apparently supposed to collect items from Michaela's shipping bin under the Sharance Tree but seemed to prefer sleeping to anything else. On the other side of Shara's house was the forge, where Raven and Gaius lived. South of the three shops, she'd found a house at the edge of Privera Forest, where an eccentric elf named Daria lived. After barely getting out of becoming an artist's assistant as well as a farmer, Michaela had headed back into town and found a beach, where two siblings, Carlos and Carmen, who were emphatic about their love for fishing, lived in a small house on the lakeside. After that, she'd gone to the pharmacy, where she'd had to evade Marian, an eager young witch with a giant syringe, with her grandmother, Marjorie's, help. Inside the mansion across the courtyard from the pharmacy lived the Saint-Coquilles: Sofia and her rather rotund father Sherman, who had the odd habit of speaking in opposites, and Evelyn, Sofia's older sister, a kindly fashionista. On the street to the north of the courtyard, there was a restaurant and an inn. In the restaurant, she'd met Blaise, the chef, and his two children, Rusk and Collette. In the inn, Shino, the innkeeper, had had to rescue Michaela from her daughter, Sakuya, and Pia, the bathhouse girl, who had mobbed her as soon as she'd entered the room.

Michaela wondered if all humans were so varied in behavior. Overall they were nice to her, but some seemed near insane.

She then returned to Shara's house. The flowery girl handed her some bags of pink turnip seeds.

"When you complete a request, sometimes you'll get a gift," she explained. "It's a way of saying thank you…but I think the real reward is helping others."

"Well, I'll do my best to help out," Michaela said.

"That's the spirit!" Shara grinned. "You might also get requests in your mailbox by your front door, so be sure to check there, too!

"Well, it's about time that I closed up the shop, so I'll see you tomorrow!"

Michaela nodded. "See you."

She stepped back outside and glanced up at the sky. The sun was setting.

_Oh no…_ she thought. _I've been gone all day!_

Michaela ran back through the town, past the Sharance tree, and into the woods. As soon as she was hidden from sight, she transformed back into a wolf and hurried towards the settlement as quickly as she could.

**XXX**

The monsters of the settlement were gathered outside Kuruna's tent when Michaela arrived. Ondorus caught sight of her first.

"Michaela!" he exclaimed, coming to meet her. "Where have you been? We were just about to come looking for you!"

"Sorry…" Michaela sat down, panting from her dash. "I just…wandered off. And I lost track of time…"

"Wandered off?" Zaid repeated incredulously. "The desert's a dangerous place, Michaela! Anything could have happened to you out there."

"Zaid is right," Kuruna agreed. "You didn't tell anyone that you were leaving. We were worried."

Michaela felt ashamed. The people here had been so kind to her, and she had caused them concern.

"I'm sorry," she said. "Really, I am. I just feel like there's something out there, something I need to find…"

"Cheep chir?" said Chirris.

"Your memories?" Ondorus translated.

Michaela shrugged. "Maybe. It's definitely something familiar. It's been nagging at me for a while now."

"Well…" Kuruna thought. "If this is a sign that your memory is returning, it could be beneficial for you to find whatever it is you're looking for. But I would greatly appreciate it if you tell someone before you wander off again, or leave a note with Owlsy."

"I will. I promise."

Kuruna nodded.

"It's time we all went to bed," she said.

As Michaela crawled into her tent, she felt a twinge of guilt. She hadn't told them the entire truth about where she'd been.

Then again, how could she?


	9. Iron and Orcs

Michaela held the turnip in her hands, rubbing away the brown dirt from the pink vegetable. Aside from the toyherb flowers Shara had helped her grow, this was her first crop: nine round, crisp, pink turnips. The frequent spring showers had aided their growth; the tree's roots let through the perfect amount of sunlight and water. Usually, the rain passed the desert by, but from a high point in the rocks behind the settlement's northern entrance, Michaela could see the clouds gathering above the mighty tree, so she knew which days she did not need to hurry back to water. It had been three days, but so far, no one, neither human nor monster, had realized her double life.

And here were the first fruits—well, vegetables—of her labors. She knew nothing more about herself, but she apparently had some talent at farming.

It felt good to do something useful.

Michaela placed eight of the turnips in the shipping bin and then walked over to the smaller water pond by the ladder. She knelt by the pond and scooped up some water in her palm, sprinkling it on the turnip to wash it.

Nearby, lined up neatly by the ladder, were her tools. She had a few more now. The townsfolk were as eager to have Michaela help them as she was to do so, and the tools were gifts, a sort of payment. In addition to the hoe and waterpot from Shara, she now had a sickle from Wells, a fishing rod from Carmen, and an axe from Sherman. In addition, Carmen had declared herself Michaela's "fishing master," and Sherman had given her 3000 gold, a startling amount for collecting nine pieces of chopped wood, Michaela had thought. But he was a very generous human. She liked him, even though she had to think twice about everything he said.

The turnip seemed clean enough. Michaela took a bite. It was good, raw but good.

_Maybe I should look into getting cooking appliances from Blaise, _she thought. _I've got some more seeds; if I grow them, I could cook dishes and eat or sell those…_

She shook her head and swallowed.

_Listen to me. Thinking as though I live here! It's barely been three days, and once I find whatever-it-is I'm looking for, I might be able to go home for real…_

"**Good-bye!**"

Michaela stood up and turned around. Sofia was standing in the tunnel, her parasol held loosely at her side.

"Hi, Sofia," Michaela replied, quickly finishing the turnip as she went to greet her visitor.

"I'm really **busy **today, so I've come to chat," the rich girl said.

"By which you mean you're not busy, right?" Michaela clarified.

"**Absolutely not!**" was the reply, but she grinned as she said it.

"There **hasn't **been a lot of vandalism lately," Sofia continued. "A very **normal **amount, I mean."

"Oh, really?"

Sofia nodded. "It's a raccoon."

Michaela started to wonder what the opposite of "raccoon" was before she realized that Sofia had been honest in that phrase. She wondered how Evelyn could tell what was opposite and what wasn't, living with a father and a sister who spoke in such a confusing way. There wasn't any change of inflection or tone from truth to lie that she could detect.

"I saw it yesterday, **not **eating one of Evelyn's outfits. It ran off, but I've heard it **didn't **chew up Sakuya's tour guide plans and that it **organized **the flowers in front of Wells's store. Oh, and the iron man says it **didn't **take some of his iron, but it **couldn't possibly be **that he just used it up forging a sword and **promptly remembered**."

"I…see…" Michaela said, wondering if she really did.

"So if you see that raccoon, you better **treat it with kindness and care! Don't even think about **giving it a good whack with one of those swords for me, all right?" Sofia said, pointing at the weapons in Michaela's belt.

"I, um, will?"

Apparently that was the right answer, because Sofia left happily.

_I wonder if she leaves requests when she doesn't need help. Speaking of which, I wonder if there are any requests today._

Michaela headed out from under the tree and into town. At the moment she entered the plaza where the bulletin board stood, there was a loud clamor inside the general store, and then a small, orange creature streaked out the door, ran past Michaela, and dashed on towards the forest south of town.

"And stay out!" Hazel shouted after it, coming up next to Michaela. Her usually tidy hair was messed up, and she looked angry and upset.

"Are you alright, Hazel?" Michaela asked.

The shopkeeper shook her head in an exasperated way.

"It was that troublemaking raccoon!" she complained. "I walk in and it's sitting there behind the counter like it owns the place, with all the merchandise strewn about. It ate nearly all of the fresh produce, and what it didn't eat, it destroyed! And that good-for-nothing daughter of mine is nowhere to be found, of course. If she'd been minding the store like I'd told her to, this wouldn't have happened…"

She started to walk back into her store, still grumbling to herself.

"Do you want help cleaning up?" Michaela called, but Hazel waved her away.

"You don't know where anything goes; you'd only get in the way," she said. "But if you find Karina, tell her that she'd better get back home, or else!"

Hazel slammed the door behind her, and Michaela winced, not envying the welcome Karina would get later. She glanced around the plaza, but the only other person there was Monica, who was sitting under a cherry tree and fiddling with some string. She scowled when she saw the older girl looking. The bite that that little girl had given her still fresh in her memory, Michaela decided not to approach her, instead turning to the bulletin board.

The only note up that day was one from Gaius. "Need some help," it said in an untidy scrawl. "Looking for someone to get iron for me."

_I don't know anything about mining… Well, at least I don't think I do. Maybe I'll learn something._

She had another reason to take this request: it was the first one that gave her a reason to be at the blacksmith's, and that was where Raven was. The silent girl was a stern shopkeeper, and the times Michaela had tried to talk to her before, she had been told that a store was not a place for idle chat and to leave if she wasn't going to buy anything. Gaius was more welcoming, albeit a bit absent-minded, but it was Raven, the one with the mysteriously familiar scent, who Michaela wanted to find out more about.

Michaela took the note off of the board and walked over to the smithy. As she pushed open the door, she felt the heat of the forge inside; Gaius was working.

She saw Raven standing at the counter at the opposite end of the room.

"Good morning," Michaela called. Raven mumbled a response; it sounded suspiciously like "Don't talk to me."

Slightly discouraged, Michaela continued on to the workshop area, where Gaius was easing some metal into the furnace.

"Gaius?"

"Oh, Michaela!" he said, catching sight of her. "One sec."

He set the metal in the flames, and then he carefully set the tongs he had used to hold it on a shelf before turning to Michaela.

"What can I do for you?" he said.

"I got your request," Michaela replied.

"Ah, you did? Good. I'm almost out of materials to forge. Do you think you could get some iron for me?"

Michaela nodded. "Sure."

"You'll need a hammer to mine for it, though," Gaius added, taking an old-looking hammer down off of a shelf. "Here, you can have this one."

"To keep?" said Michaela. "Are you sure?"

Gaius shrugged. "Yeah, it's no problem. Anyway, to mine for ore, you're going to want to hit the gray rocks you see in Privera Forest and other dungeons. Oh, and if you accidentally lose your hammer, we have lots of them here at the shop. I'm not going to give you a new one for free, though, so I suggest not losing it."

"Gray rocks, don't lose the hammer," Michaela summarized. "Got it."

"Thanks for your help!" Gaius said, turning back to the furnace and picking up his own hammer, a bronze one.

As Michaela headed out of the shop, she saw Sofia perusing the accessories on the shelves.

"Hey, Raven!" the rich girl said. "Your store could really use some of my help!"

Raven shook her head. "You'd only cause more problems…"

_I think she might turn all the armor inside-out, _Michaela thought with a chuckle.

**XXX**

Michaela had only ever been to the edge of Privera Forest, the dungeon to the south. Daria the artist lived in a little house there, and the elf's colorful sculptures dotted the trees, but otherwise she knew nothing of the area. It was, she thought as she took her first walk there, very beautiful. The sunlight filtered through the treetops in a pleasant way, and almost immediately she came across a small flock of Woolies and round, red Pomme Pommes. They looked up as she approached but otherwise did not react.

_The Pomme Pommes look like giant apples… I wonder if they have a stash of apples somewhere, like the Pineys in the desert._

_Well, I can look for that at my own peril later. Now, gray rocks, gray rocks…_

The forest curved around a lake; it wasn't as big as the town's lake, but Michaela still couldn't see to the opposite end. She thought she saw a few small islands with some plantlike creatures crawling about on them, but she didn't see any rocks there, so she followed the curve of the lake further into the forest.

Soon she reached a wide clearing, dotted with little blue flowers. At the other end of the clearing were a cluster of gray rocks. As Michaela crossed over to them, she passed a patch of weedy earth, like a garden plot.

_Maybe I could grow crops here… Well, I'm not about to run out of space in the Sharance Tree fields, so it isn't necessary now._

She reached the rocks. Close up they seemed brittle; it looked like there were darker gray veins in the stone, attainable if she broke away the outer rock.

Michaela raised her hammer, but then she paused. There was a purple light shining between the rocks. She set her hammer on the grass and leaned over the rocks to get a better look. Behind the gray stones, a small ball of purple light was hovering just above the ground.

_What is it? Some sort of magic or energy?_

_I… I like it… But why…?_

The light pulsed, and then a smaller ball of light shot out of it, flying over Michaela's head. She whirled around to see the small light grow and change shape, and then there was an orc standing there, blinking at her uncertainly.

Michaela jumped to her feet, her hands on the hilts of her swords, her eyes scanning the clearing for exits. Her back was to the rocks; that was unfortunate. She could run, but the orc had a bow…

…which it raised, snorting as it aimed its arrow at Michaela's face.

She risked a first strike, lunging forward and drawing her swords. Startled, the orc's shot went wild, and she quickly sent it back to the Forest of Beginnings with a few jabs to the neck. Just as she was placing her swords back into her belt, there was another pulse from the purple light, and this time a giant ant appeared.

_The light's spawning the monsters! Can I destroy it?_

Michaela jumped over the rocks and struck out at the light. Her blade met something solid at its center. She heard the ant clicking its pincers as it approached and shoved her sword into the light with as much force as she could muster. Something gave, and the light vanished as a solid object fell to the ground, but Michaela immediately turned her attention to the ant, which was climbing over the rocks. She sliced upwards as it bore down on her, nearly separating its head from its body. It disappeared, and Michaela relaxed with a sigh.

She picked up the object that had fallen. It was too shiny to be a rock but not clear enough to be a gem. It was purple, like the ball of light had been, and in a shape like a spirally sunburst. She pocketed it; maybe it had value. In any case, it was pretty.

Michaela picked up her hammer and went back to her initial intention, mining.

**XXX**

Not long afterwards, Michaela had in her backpack a large chunk of iron and several smaller, brownish chunks that she wasn't sure were good for anything but had kept anyway. Satisfied, she started back through the forest towards the town.

Soon after she reentered the trees, she heard rustling and grumbling nearby. Having had enough fighting for one day, Michaela ducked behind a tree to wait for the monsters to pass.

Peering between the leafy branches, she saw three orcs, one smaller than the other two. As they walked, one of the larger ones appeared to be on constant guard, looking around with its beady black eyes. The other larger one kept close by the smaller one, and as Michaela watched the larger ran a clawed hand through the smaller's hair, picking out some small thing that had gotten caught in it and tossing it away. The smaller jerked away with a protesting growl, and the larger cuffed it lightly.

_Like a mother and child, that's how they're acting…_

…_They are, aren't they? And the one in front is the dad…_

Of course. It seemed obvious now; monsters had families just like humans did. And plenty of monsters were less feral…

Suddenly, a horrible thought entered Michaela's mind.

_The difference in size between the parents and child… Like the first orcs I saw, one small and two big. The first orc I fought…_

_It was a child. It was lost and afraid in the human town and didn't know any better, and I hurt it. And the other orcs, its parents, they were just trying to protect it… I nearly killed their baby and then did the same to them…_

The orcs had passed, so Michaela continued out of the forest, but her mind was buzzing and her hands were curled into fists at her sides.

_How could I have been so stupid, so thoughtless? Is that what I do, attack at the slightest threat? Is that the life I've forgotten, a life where I kill children…?_

_No… It can't be. I refuse to believe it. But if that _is_ what I used to do, it isn't what I have to do now. I can be better than that._

_I _am _better than that._

Michaela looked around. In her preoccupied state, she had wandered out of the forest and past Daria's house. Now, she was standing at the edge of a field of many-colored, sweet-smelling flowers.

_It's so beautiful, _she thought, turning to look in all directions. Her eyes fell on a figure lying against a tree at the edge of the field. It was Karina.

Michaela approached her; the gray-haired girl seemed to be asleep.

"Karina…?"

Karina half-opened her eyes.

"Oh. Hello," she said, adding "(And I was having such a wonderful dream, too)" under her breath.

"Your mom wants you back at the store," Michaela told her. "The raccoon messed everything up, so she probably wants you to help clean up.

"Oh. (Sounds like work.) Well, thanks for telling me, I guess…"

It looked like she was drifting off again.

"She's really mad," Michaela added.

"All the more reason to keep away…"

Michaela sighed.

_I'm not going to get her to get up, I guess… Do I tell Hazel I saw her? No, that would just make her even more angry…_

"This field," Michaela changed the subject. "Does it belong to someone?"

Karina opened her eyes a little bit wider than the last time.

"I don't know (and I don't really care)," she said. "I think Shara tends to the flowers sometimes…but most people use it for relaxing or for dates…"

"Dates?"

"Yeah, dates. When a boy and a girl go somewhere and have a romantic conversation. (I've never been on one…Seems like a lot of unnecessary walking.)"

"I see…"

Michaela waited for a few moments, but Karina didn't say any more.

"I guess I'll see you around, then?" Michaela said. There was no response, so she left Karina to her nap and headed back into town.

The sun had started to set; she had been in the forest longer than she had thought. Luckily, she didn't run into Hazel on her way back to the blacksmith's; she wasn't sure what she would have told her if she had.

Michaela reentered the blacksmith's and headed over to Gaius's workstation.

"I've got the iron," she announced, taking off her backpack as he turned to greet her.

"Thanks, Michaela," Gaius said, resting his hammer against his shoulder as he reached for the iron she took from her pack. "Now I can keep on working."

"You've been working this whole time?" Michaela said with a bit of astonishment as she shouldered her pack again. Forging seemed to her to be hard work, and she had been gone all afternoon…

"Yeah," Gaius chuckled. "I think I'd fall asleep instantly if I put my hammer down."

"Well, I don't know about _that_…" Michaela laughed with him.

"Since you got this iron for me, though, I can keep going for a while longer," said Gaius. "Thanks!"

"You're welcome," Michaela replied.

"Now, I should give you something in return for your help…"

"Why don't you give her your hammer…?"

Michaela whirled around. Raven had come up behind her, her motions completely silent. Gaius, however, didn't seem very startled.

_He must be used to her comings and goings…but I'm not yet!_

"Mine?" Gaius was saying. "Why mine?"

"A newer hammer would be an improvement over what she currently has…" Raven explained. "You'd like Gaius's hammer, right…?" she added, turning to Michaela.

"What?" Michaela was still a bit unnerved by Raven's sudden appearance, and the red-haired girl's blank glare, now fixed completely on Michaela, was not helping. "Uh, sure…" she stammered. "I mean, if it's being offered…"

"I don't mind," Gaius said, handing his hammer to Michaela. "Here you…"

As the hammer left his grasp, a confused look formed on the dwarf's face. He blinked drowsily, and then he fell to the floor.

"Gaius!" Michaela exclaimed, getting down on her knees at his side. "What happened? Is he all right?"

"He's fine…" Raven knelt across from her. "He just fell asleep," she added.

Gaius did appear to be breathing evenly; Michaela glanced up at Raven, confused.

"Did he really fall asleep because he let go of his hammer?" she asked.

"Gaius has a one-track mind when he's forging," Raven explained. "It's all he can think about. That's why I always try to make sure that he runs out of materials when it's time to go to sleep…"

"Ah! So he stayed up too long because I was getting him iron to use…"

"Yeah…"

Michaela shook her head. "I'm sorry…"

"Don't worry about it," Raven unemotionally said. "It's not your fault."

"Thanks." Michaela looked at the hammers in her hands. "I guess I shouldn't take his hammer from him," she added with a grin.

"Are you sure…?" An unusual expression of shock flickered across Raven's face as Michaela set the bronze hammer next to the sleeping dwarf.

"Yeah, it's fine."

"I see…" Raven's face was emotionless once again. "I'll carry Gaius up to his bed…"

"Do you want help carrying him?" Michaela offered.

"No, it's fine."

"Well, if you're sure…" Michaela stood up. "I'll see you later, then?"

Raven did not respond. Her eyes were on Gaius.

Michaela left, not pressing her for a response.

_All in all, not the best of days, _she thought wryly as she curled up on in her tent that night. _And the worst part is that I can't talk about it with anyone, not even Ondorus… I'm a girl living two lives without even knowing how either of them started, and I'm all on my own…_

**XXX**

**A.N.: **I wish I could make Sofia's speech red, but I guess I'll have to make do with bold.

It's almost midnight, but I _really _wanted to get this chapter typed up before I leave town again! Mine is a busy summer…


	10. Sickness and Silver

"Oh, thank you!" Shara exclaimed as Michaela handed her the toyherb. "I'm happy to get such a nice present any day of the year, but it feels extra special to get it on my birthday!"

Michaela grinned, glad that her gift was appreciated.

"I should be thanking _you,_" she said. "That's from the first crop you helped me grow."

"That makes it all the more special!" Shara said as she added the toyherb to a vase of other flowers on the shop counter. "It was planted on the day you came to town."

As Shara fiddled with the vase, Michaela noticed a pendant hanging from her neck. It was shaped like a flower.

"That necklace is really pretty," she said. "Was it a present, too?"

"Yes, it was," Shara confirmed. "Raven gave it to me earlier."

"Raven?" Michaela couldn't keep the surprise out of her voice. Shara laughed.

"I know, she doesn't seem the gift-giving type," the flowery girl said. "But she has a good heart. Isn't she talented, though? Here, take a look."

Shara took off the pendant and handed it to Michaela, who took it carefully into her palm. It was small and shiny, and it appeared to have been made out of a single yellow stone. Michaela wondered at the detail of the shape delicately carved into the tiny stone.

"It must take a lot of skill to make something like this," she said as she passed the pendant back to Shara. "Skill, and patience, and care."

Shara nodded. "Just like farming, or growing flowers, wouldn't you agree?"

"I guess that's how it is with anything you want to do well," Michaela mused.

"When's your birthday, Michaela?"

Michaela blinked, surprised by the sudden question. "I…don't remember that," she said.

"Oh, that's too bad," Shara said sympathetically. "Well, if you don't remember soon, we'll just have to make one up!"

There was a creaking sound from the staircase, and Michaela looked up to see Monica crouched on an upper stair, glaring down at her.

"…maybe I should go," Michaela said. "Happy birthday, Shara!"

"Thank you again," Shara said, giving her little sister an irritated glance.

Michaela stepped back outside, carefully avoiding the puddles left over from an early-morning drizzle. When _was _her birthday? That piece of her past was missing with the rest of it.

_I hope I find another one of those orbs soon, _she thought. _I want more of my memories back!_

Checking the requests board was a habit of hers now. There was one request posted, and it was signed by Raven.

Michaela took the piece of paper off of the request board. "Bring iron by 7 pm," it said, short and to the point.

_I can do that, _Michaela thought.

She walked over to the smithy, deciding to let Raven know that her request had been read before she went out to the forest. As she pushed the door open, she noticed that it was unusually quiet; Gaius was not banging away at the forge.

Raven was standing next to the shop counter; she looked up as Michaela approached.

"Hey, Raven," Michaela said, trying not to be put off by Raven's blank expression. "I saw your request."

Raven picked up a small piece of iron from one of the shelves behind the counter and held it out to Michaela.

"Bring me some more of this," she said in a voice that seemed almost softer than usual.

"Okay…" Michaela said. She glanced back towards the forge. "Where's Gaius?"

"He needed more iron," Raven replied.

"So he went to get some more iron?" said Michaela. "Sorry, but… then why do you need me to get some?"

Raven stared at her. Michaela thought the quiet girl seemed a bit unsteady; she was swaying slightly on her feet.

"Is something wrong?" Michaela asked.

"Hurry…" said Raven.

"Right. Sorry."

Michaela turned and began to walk back towards the door, but before she had even gone halfway across the room, she heard a thud behind her. She turned to see Raven lying sprawled on the floor.

"Raven!" Michaela exclaimed, hurrying to kneel on the floor at her side. "Raven, are you okay?"

"I'm fine…" Raven muttered, but her eyes were unfocused. Michaela placed a hand on her cheek and frowned; Raven's skin was very warm.

"You're burning up," Michaela said. "I think you have a fever."

"No, I'm fine…" Raven protested, slowly sitting up. "I was just near the forge earlier…"

She managed to get back to a semi-upright position, but she almost immediately swayed backwards again. Michaela grabbed her arms to support her.

"No, you're not fine!" she argued. "Come on; let's head over to the apothecary."

Raven frowned. "No."

"Raven…" Michaela sighed exasperatedly. "Well, at the very least, you should lie down and try to get some rest."

"I can't…"

"Why not?"

"The store…" Raven explained. "I need to watch over the store…"

"What you need is rest!"

Michaela looked back towards the door, hoping to see Gaius returning, but the two girls were alone in the smithy. Raven slumped forward. Michaela placed a hand on the other girl's head and peered into her eyes, which were nearly shut. She seemed to have fainted.

_She should be in bed…_

Michaela had never been upstairs in the smithy—she'd never had any reason to be—but she assumed that that was where Raven's room was. Luckily, the red-haired girl was not very heavy, and so Michaela managed to carry her upstairs without much trouble.

The upper floor was very simply furnished. There was a table and some chairs in the main room, and what looked like extra forging materials stored in baskets and shelves along one wall. There were two bedrooms, one much neater than the other. Michaela assumed that the neater one was Raven's; it seemed more her type.

"There you go," she muttered as she placed Raven on the bed. The red-haired girl was breathing evenly, peacefully asleep.

_She must have worked herself to exhaustion, that's all… As if I can say "that's all" about something like that! Can anyone really be that stubborn?_

Michaela glanced around the bedroom. There wasn't much there: a dresser, a desk with a few books on it, and on the bedside table a mirror and another book, with a pencil lying next to it. Perhaps it was a diary. The wallpaper was peeling a bit, but other than that there was nothing notable about Raven's room.

_She won't be happy with me when she wakes up, _Michaela thought, looking back to the sleeping girl. _Well, let her be. It's for her own good._

_But someone has to watch over the store while she's resting…_

Michaela couldn't remember ever running a store before, not that that meant anything.

She might as well try, and hope that she didn't mess things up too much. As a favor for Raven.

**XXX**

Michaela stood behind the counter in the store.

_So… What should I do first…? I guess I should check the prices of what's on sale._

She glanced around the shelves. There were a lot of items there, from armor and weapons to accessories and farm tools. On the accessories shelf directly behind her, Michaela found a price list, which she moved to the counter for easier reference.

"Got it," she muttered. "Okay, let's go."

Not long afterwards, the first customer arrived. Michaela didn't recognize her; she must have been a traveler, staying at Shino's inn.

"Um… Welcome!" Michaela said as the woman approached the counter.

"Hello," said the woman. "Let's see… Do you have a Cheap Bracelet?"

"I-Indeed we do! One moment, please."

Michaela grabbed the small, tan bracelet off of the shelf behind her and placed it on the counter.

"Here you go!" She looked at the price sheet. "That'll be… 560G, please."

"All right, here you go," the woman said, taking some coins out of her change purse and handing them to Michaela.

"Thank you very much!" Michaela said. "Please come again!"

The woman smiled at her, and then she took the bracelet and left.

_I guess I did that right…!_

Just then, a man entered the store. He strode purposefully up to the counter.

"Get me a battle hammer!" he ordered before Michaela could say a word. "And make it snappy!"

"O-Okay!" Michaela stammered, hurrying over to the weapons display. She hesitated for a moment, and then she grabbed a hammer and carefully eased it out of the rack.

"Hey, kid!" the man snapped. "Hurry up! I ain't got all day!"

"S-Sorry!"

Michaela warily handed the battle hammer to the customer, not liking the idea of giving him a weapon; he seemed pretty formidable already.

"That'll be 1400G," she said nervously, but the man grinned as he handed over the money.

"Thanks, kid!" he said. "You look like a hard worker! I'll be back soon!"

"Th-Thank you very much!" said Michaela.

_If he's a regular, and that made him think I'm a hard worker…Raven must not be much of a salesperson, _she thought as the man walked back outside. He held the door open for the next person to come in. It was Karina.

"Welcome!" Michaela greeted her.

Karina frowned slightly. "What are_ you_ doing here?" she asked.

Michaela hesitated. "Well, you see…"

"Never mind," said Karina. "I'm kinda in a rush… (And I don't really care…)"

"I see…" Michaela muttered, shaking her head.

"Ah, there's my order," Karina said, walking over to pick up a basket next to the counter. "I've already paid."

"You paid in advance?"

"Yep." Karina turned to leave. "See you…"

"Bye."

Michaela waited, but for a long time, no one came into the store.

_It's a good thing I don't mind standing, _she thought. _Maybe I should have taken Raven to the apothecary. The store isn't _that _busy. I guess she wouldn't have listened to me anyway, though…_

The front door opened, and in walked Gaius, his hammer leaned casually against his shoulder.

"Hey, Raven!" he called. "You transformed into Michaela! That's amazing!"

"…No, Gaius, it's actually me," Michaela said.

Gaius shrugged, grinning. "Yeah, I figured."

He set his hammer down on the floor, leaning it against the wall by the door, and then he approached Michaela.

"So, where's Raven, then?" he asked.

"She's sick," Michaela explained. "She's sleeping upstairs."

"I see," said Gaius. Michaela thought he looked oddly unconcerned. Then again, she couldn't remember this dwarf ever looking concerned about anything, unlike the temperamental one that lived in the desert settlement.

Gaius turned towards the staircase. "Hey, Raven," he said. "How're you feeling?"

Michaela hurried over to see Raven coming downstairs, walking slowly and using the banister for support.

"I'm fine…" Raven said.

"You can barely stand," Michaela pointed out.

"I'm…fine…" Raven insisted, letting go of the banister. "I'll do it…"

"No, Raven," Michaela said firmly.

"It's my job," said Raven.

"I know, but…" Michaela shook her head. "Gaius, help me out!"

She looked back towards the counter, but Gaius was no longer there. Michaela turned to see him standing by the door.

"What are you doing, Gaius?" she asked.

"Closing the store," he explained.

Then Michaela saw the little sign in his hands, that he was hanging from a hook on the door.

"There we go," Gaius said. "All closed. Let's go to the apothecary now."

"But…" Raven protested weakly.

"The store's closed, so there's no work to do," Gaius explained, smiling kindly at her. "I'll go on ahead."

He pushed the door open and walked on out. Michaela turned back to Raven.

"Let's go to the apothecary, Raven," she said, extending a hand. But Raven ignored the offered support, instead making her slow way towards the door on her own. Michaela let her go; it was no use arguing.

But just as Raven reached the door, she stopped and turned back to face Michaela.

"Um…" she muttered, hesitating.

"What is it, Raven?" Michaela asked.

Raven reached into her pocket and pulled out a small piece of silver. She stared blankly at her hand for a moment, and then she reached out and placed the silver in Michaela's hand.

"…never mind," she said, turning around again and pushing her way through the door.

Michaela studied the piece of silver.

_Is this… a thank-you? …I guess it all worked out in the end._

She put the silver in her pocket and went to follow Raven.

**XXX**

Michaela didn't offer her hand to Raven again, but she stayed close enough to catch the girl if she fell. They reached the apothecary without incident. Gaius was waiting inside, but he wasn't the only one there. Wells and Marjorie were standing over Marian, who was sitting on the floor by the counter, crying, her syringe lying discarded at her feet. Collette was kneeling at Marian's side, her hand on the other girl's arm comfortingly.

"That stupid raccoon ate my research samples!" Marian was saying, angry tears in her eyes. "I spent hours working on those!"

"This has gone on for far too long, Wells," Marjorie said. "We can't have monsters running loose in town. It's brought us nothing but trouble.

Wells nodded. "You're absolutely right. I'd go after it myself, but…"

The mayor's eyes fell on Michaela, standing by the door.

"Michaela," he said. "Shara tells me you're good at fighting monsters."

"I'm…all right," Michaela replied hesitantly. Although the old man had shown her no malice as a human, she was still wary of him, and even more wary of what she guessed he was about to ask her to do.

"She's more than just 'all right,'" Gaius said. "They were full-grown orcs, Wells, two of them, and she was barely winded afterwards."

A small part of Michaela enjoyed the praise, but the majority of her wished that Gaius had kept his mouth shut. It hadn't been something to be proud of; she knew that now.

"It wasn't like that," she protested.

"There's no need to be modest, girl," said Wells. "It's a good skill to have. Now, I would greatly appreciate it if you'd go into the forest and defeat that raccoon for us."

Michaela bit her lip. _But I don't want to defeat it. It's just trying to live, like anyone else._

The humans were all looking at her expectantly. Well, not all of them; Raven's head was bowed, her eyes closed.

"Is that necessary?" Michaela said. "I mean… It probably doesn't understand that it's done anything wrong. Fighting seems a bit harsh."

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Raven suddenly raise her head, but Wells was looking at her like she was crazy, and that reaction snatched more of Michaela's attention.

"What would you have us do instead?" he said incredulously. "Talk to it? Politely ask it not to be a vandal?"

Michaela blinked. Wells's words, sarcastic though they were, had given her an idea.

"Okay," she said. "I'll go deal with it."

Marjorie nodded. "Good," she said.

"Make it pay, Michaela!" Marian called. Michaela turned and walked out of the apothecary without answering.

The idea wasn't much of a plan, but it just might mean that she could avoid an unnecessary fight. First, she had to find the raccoon.

Then, she had to hope that Raccoon wasn't too different from Chipsqueek.


	11. Statues and Bridges

It was easier for Michaela to explore Primera Forest as a wolf; her sense of smell was more acute in her monster form, and so she trotted along, nose to the ground, tracking the raccoon. Its scent trail led her around the lake to the north, through clearings and trees. Twice she was drawn off-course by the scent of the strange, monster-spawning lights—a yellow one and a blue one this time—but the monsters that came from them simply ignored her, so she let them be.

The raccoon's scent trail ended at the lake, and Michaela sat in the grass, confused. Had it swum across? Should she follow?

She glanced around. There were two statues nearby, one orange and shaped something like an upright figure facing north, and the other a gray pole with a sort of head on top, complete with flowers for hair and a face pointed to the east. Between the statues, there was a square slab of rock. There was something written on the rock; Michaela went to take a closer look.

"_When the faces see each other, the doors will open,_" read the writing on the rock.

_What does that mean…? _Michaela wondered. She looked up at the statues. They did have faces, a more obvious one on the gray statue and white dots on the front of the orange statue that were something like eyes and a smile. She transformed back into her human form and took hold of the orange statue's arm, tugging on it. The statue haltingly rotated towards her, and she pulled it around so it faced the gray statue. Then she did the same to the gray statue, reorienting it so that it faced the orange one.

Nothing happened. Michaela looked down at the stone slab.

"The faces see each other," she said. "What else do I have to do?"

There was no answer from the rock. Michaela rubbed her eyes, frustrated. Nothing was ever simple, especially cryptic messages. She'd gotten the faces to see each other…

…_unless there are other faces._

Michaela slowly lowered her hands and looked out across the lake. She could just make out the opposite shore, and standing there…were two large shapes, one orange and one gray.

_Yes._

Michaela turned the statues again, this time making them look out across the lake.

A few minutes later, the golden wolf came to a halt on the other side of the lake. There were indeed two more statues there, identical to the ones she'd seen before, and another stone slab between them, with the same inscription. Michaela worked quickly to turn the statues, making them face their counterparts on the opposite shore. As she slid the final statue into place, the ground trembled beneath her feet, and the stone slab fell away.

_So that's the door! _Michaela thought with a grin. _A trapdoor._

She approached the edge of the entrance and saw a stone staircase leading downwards.

"This raccoon has got a heck of a hiding place…" Michaela muttered as she started down the stairs into the darkness. Maybe the ruins had been there before, and the raccoon had just moved in recently—

Her foot suddenly came down on air, and she grabbed a nearby stone pillar, managing to keep her balance. She held on to the stone as her eyes adjusted to the dimness of the underground cavern. The walkway dropped away abruptly before her, the pillar she held the sole remnant of what once had been a bridge. Several yards in front of her there was a wide island of gray stone, and she could see stairs leading up to the surface from the island, but between her and there was nothing but dark water.

_I can't jump that far, _Michaela thought. _At least this isn't the time to see if I can; there's no way to climb back up if I miss. I should check the other side._

But a run back through the forest proved fruitless; although the trapdoor on the northern end of the lake had also opened, the bridge at that side was also broken.

"This is the day of frustrations," Michaela said aloud. "Write it on the calendar. Or in the diary."

She hadn't actually written anything in the diary that Shara had given her that first day she'd arrived in town as a human, but if any day was a tale worth writing down, it was this one. First she'd had to deal with Raven's stubbornness, and run the weapon shop to boot. Then she'd been sent off to fight a battle she didn't see any reason for, with a slim hope that the battle might be avoided with a conversation, that is, if the raccoon understood Chipsqueek, and also that is if she ever found the creature she was supposed to battle after all the running through the forest, puzzling over cryptic messages, moving statues around, and now this broken bridge… How ironic it was that sweet Shara's birthday was the newly-dubbed Day of Frustrations, the longest day of the year…

Michaela turned and slowly walked back up the stairs and through the forest, back to the entrance. It was about lunchtime, judging from the height of the sun, and she was hungry from all the running around, so she picked an apple from a tree and bit into it.

_A simple problem has a simple solution, _she thought as she munched on the apple. _Problem: I'm hungry. Solution: I eat something. Problem: The bridge is broken. Solution…_

…_fix the bridge._

Michaela stared at the red fruit in her hand for a moment. Simple problem, simple solution.

_I don't know how to fix a bridge, _she thought. _But maybe I can find someone who can._

Who did she know who was good at making things? Gaius and Raven came to mind first, but Raven wasn't feeling well and Michaela didn't want to bother them. So who did that leave?

The answer came as she finished the apple. _Daria. _The artist. She even lived just outside Privera Forest! Michaela hadn't interacted with her much; she'd run into her on the street a few times and once in the bathhouse, but since any conversation with the enthusiastic elf inevitably turned to the subject of Michaela becoming Daria's assistant, Michaela preferred to avoid talking with her. But now she needed Daria's help.

Michaela quickly made the short walk to Daria's house, which stood between the entrance to the forest and the flower field. It was a small building surrounded by statues of varying shapes, sizes, and colors, each more eclectic than the one before it. Daria herself was standing outside of her house, adding white dots to one of the statues with a small paintbrush.

"Hello, Daria," Michaela greeted her. Engrossed in her artwork, the elf did not reply.

Michaela tried again. "You know those statues by the lake in Privera Forest?"

"Sure I do," said Daria, not looking away from her current project. "Touched them up myself. Those silly ancients had no taste in color; they're much more vibrant now, don't you agree?"

"Vibrant _is_ the word…" Michaela muttered, looking at the white dots Daria was painting and thinking of the dots on the orange statues in the forest.

"I found a secret tunnel underneath," she continued, "but there's a broken bridge, so I can't get across. Do you think you could fix it?"

"A broken bridge?" Daria glanced at Michaela, one eyebrow raised. "How mundane. I'm sure I could fix it, but where's the art in that?" She began to wipe off her paintbrush with a piece of cloth.

"Come on, a great artist like you?" Michaela complimented her, trying to keep her attention. "I'm sure you can find something artistic to do with it."

Daria froze, staring at Michaela for several seconds. Then a huge, maniacal grin split her face.

"You're right!" she cried. "A great artist can make art out of anything!"

The elf hurried into her house, and the door slammed shut behind her. Michaela waited, and had just decided to knock on the door when it suddenly opened again. Daria came running out, her arms full of paints, brushes, and other art tools that Michaela had no name for.

"Leave it to me!" Daria called as she darted off into the forest. "I'll build you a bridge like you've never seen!"

"Hold on, wait up…!"

Michaela ran after Daria, but the elf was much swifter than a human, and Michaela didn't dare transform in front of her, even though the wolf could have kept pace. As Daria disappeared into the northern part of the forest, shouting about inspiration, Michaela slowed to a walk. She had had enough of running for one day.

There was, she noted, one good thing about travelling behind the exceedingly energetic elf: the forest's monsters kept well out of the way.

_I bet they're more used to Daria than I am, _Michaela thought as she spotted an elephant lurking safely out of the way of the path, _especially if she's been in here often, graffitiing ancient statues._

Michaela finally reached the trapdoor. She heard the sounds of a happy clamor coming from below, and sat on the top step to wait. Better to keep out of the way.

"This! Is! Art!" Daria shouted, her voice echoing through the underground cavern and back up the stairs to Michaela. "Rainbow!"

And then, silence. Michaela stayed where she was, and soon she heard the quick staccato of Daria's returning footsteps. The elf came rushing up the stairs towards Michaela.

"It's finished!" she gleefully announced. "It's another masterpiece! A bridge like no other!"

Daria laughed merrily, jumped out of the trapdoor, and ran back off through the forest. Michaela stared after her for a few moments.

_She's like a storm, _Michaela thought, wondering if Shara and Daria's enthusiasm had ever come head-to-head, or worse, worked together—one would arrange your life and the other would decorate it, in a whirlwind of energetic generosity.

Michaela shook her head and went downstairs to see what the elf had made. Her eyes adjusted to the dark more quickly this time, and then she gaped. The bridge was brightly designed with spirals of every color of the rainbow and curved at the edges, a piece of modern art.

"Wow," Michaela muttered. "It's certainly a bridge like I've never seen, I'll give her that!"

She crossed the bridge to the gray stone island and approached the stairs. Light filtered down the steps from the surface.

A short climb later, Michaela entered a grassy area, completely enclosed by trees.

_This is probably an island on the lake, _she thought. She could hear the water flowing nearby, but the trees were too thick to see through.

At the other end of the clearing sat a small creature with red fur, a stripy tale, and a dark mask around its eyes: the raccoon.

"So you're the one who's been causing trouble?" Michaela said. "You look kind of cute, actually…"

The raccoon tilted its head to one side and chattered uncomprehendingly. Michaela didn't want to frighten it, but she didn't know if she could pronounce the chipsqueek language with human vocal chords, so she transformed into the wolf. The raccoon's eyes narrowed, but otherwise it did not react to her transformation.

"_Hello,_" Michaela said in Chipsqueek, thinking hard back to that morning back in Ondorus's tent. "_I speak, you understand?_"

The raccoon was silent for a moment. "_I understand_," it finally replied, in perfect Chipsqueek.

Michaela grinned, relieved. "_Humans not happy,_" she explained brokenly. "_Not happy with you. You do things, bad things; humans not happy._"

The raccoon frowned. "_Humans not happy with me?_" it asked.

Michaela nodded. The raccoon appeared pensive for a moment, and then it let out a high-pitched laugh and said something too fast and complicated for Michaela to understand.

"What?" she said, forgetting the Chipsqueek sound for the word.

It turned out it didn't matter.

"I say, I don't care," the raccoon said in humanoid speech in a screechy, grating voice. "Humans not happy? Ha! I have food, I have fun. I don't care!"

"Y-you don't…" Michaela stammered, startled by its sudden fluency. "But… But you're messing with their things, their lives!"

"Don't care, don't care!" the raccoon repeated, dropping to all fours and starting to walk around the clearing. "Don't care what humans want, don't care what _you _want. You, stinky beast. I know you, and I don't care."

"What do you mean, you know me?" Michaela asked, turning in a circle to keep the raccoon in front of her as it moved. "How do you know me?"

The raccoon sniffed the air.

"Know your stench," it hissed. "Stinky beast. Stink like birthplace prison, stink like gates. Smelled you, followed, escaped! But not free. Stinky beast chased me, hurt me. Not again!"

Suddenly, the raccoon shot forward and bit Michaela on the nose. She yelped and tried to shake it off, but its jaws were strong and its teeth dug painfully into her skin. Michaela quickly transformed, grabbed her swords, and slashed blindly. Her blades met flesh, and the raccoon leapt away with a short scream.

Michaela stumbled backwards, gingerly touching a hand to her face. Her nose was bleeding, but the cuts didn't seem too deep; the wolf's muzzle was larger and an easier target for the raccoon's teeth. Were wounds exclusive to each of her forms, or would injury affect her in both?

There wasn't time to wonder about that now. The raccoon heaved itself to its feet, licking the scratches on its belly.

"Not again," it snarled, glaring at Michaela with beady black eyes. "Not again. I am free!"

The raccoon drew itself up to its full height—and suddenly, its full height rivalled the treetops! Michaela gaped at the towering red monster as it roared and waved its paws in the air; those limbs were now armed with claws as long and sharp as her swords, and Michaela didn't even want to think about how powerful the raccoon's teeth were _now_. She raised her swords, and the raccoon pointed one slender, black claw at her. It screeched, and the trees around the clearing trembled. Leaves came flying at Michaela, and while she managed to bat some of them away with her blades, others sliced at her skin with razor edges. She covered her head with her arms, trying to protect her face.

From high above her came the raccoon's thunderous roar, and although she couldn't see it, she felt the winds off of its clawed hands as they slashed down towards her. At the last instant, she struck upwards, and the raccoon's paw impaled itself upon her swords. The raccoon screamed and jerked away, but Michaela held tightly to the hilts of her swords, which had stuck deep in the raccoon's flesh. She was pulled up with them. The raccoon's massive face leered down at her as it lifted its paw to its mouth. Michaela braced her feet against the raccoon's fingers and pulled with all her might. Her swords came free of the raccoon's paw, and as it screamed, Michaela leapt at its chest, crossing her swords in front of her. The tips of her blades touched the sides of the raccoon's neck, and as she dropped, she opened her arms.

The raccoon let out one short, choking wail as the blades severed its neck. Michaela closed her eyes, but the explosion of light was bright enough for her to see behind her eyelids as she hit the ground and rolled. She rolled right through the space where the raccoon had stood, but when she finally came to a halt on her feet and opened her eyes, she saw that the raccoon had disappeared, gone back to the Forest of Beginnings. Hopefully, it would stay there this time.

Michaela took a deep breath and slowly let it out. She sheathed her swords and checked herself for injuries; other than her nose and small cuts on her face and hands from the leaves, she was unharmed.

_I guess a fight was unavoidable after all, _she thought ruefully. _I wish it had listened to me._

_But what did it mean, it knew my stench?_

Michaela ran the raccoon's words over in her head. While most of it made no sense to her, she could only conclude that she had fought the raccoon once before, or at least run into it, in her forgotten past.

A rustling sound drew her attention, and she turned to see that the foliage at the far end of the clearing had bent aside, revealing a path through the trees. Curious, she followed the path into another open space. For a moment, she stared. This area was just like the one behind the univir settlement back in the desert—same round shape, same short pedestal. The only differences were that the pedestal stood at the end of a walkway extending into a small pond, and the orb that sat upon it glowed pink and green, like the leaves and flowers of Spring.

_Is this one here for me, too? _Michaela wondered. _Well, there's only one way to find out._

She walked across the pond and reached out to gently touch the orb's surface. As her fingers brushed the cool sphere, it flashed and rose into the air, just like the one before had. This time, Michaela was not surprised when it merged with her chest.

…

_**Droplets of sweat stung her eyes, and she quickly rubbed them away with the back of her fist, trying to keep sight of her opponent. The figure in front of her was hovering a few inches above the ground and clad in a long black cloak. There was a pale cloth mask over his face. The only visible part of his body were two skeletal hands, one of which held a sharp scythe with a silver blade. Michaela tried to calm her heavy breathing; she was tired, yes, but not finished.**_

_**The ghost shot forward, swinging its scythe at her. Michaela ducked and rolled, feeling the wind of the blade as it barely missed the top of her head. She got back to her feet and strengthened just enough to sheathe her swords before she transformed, and then she whirled around to face her opponent, snarling softly.**_

_**A low cackling came from behind the white mask, and the ghost raised a hand and shot a ball of dark energy at Michaela. She darted to the side, and the energy exploded harmlessly in the dirt behind her.**_

_**This time the ghost raised both of its hands, and a dark mist came from them, surrounding both it and Michaela. She couldn't see a thing, so she closed her eyes and waited. The instant she felt the air in front of her shift, she transformed again. The light from her transformation stunned the ghost, and as soon as she had two legs she had leapt up and locked them around the ghost's thin body, shoving it to the ground, her landing on top of it. Upon hitting the ground, the ghost flashed as well, and suddenly it was not a ghost but a young man with pallid skin and shaggy, black hair. Michaela crossed her swords over the boy's neck, touching the tips to his skin. He blinked up at her with dark green eyes, dazed from the impact.**_

"_**You're dead," Michaela whispered, with a hint of pride.**_

_**The boy licked his chapped lips.**_

"_**That's a matter of opinion," he muttered.**_

_**A smile flickered across Michaela's face. "Would you rather I call you undead?"**_

_**Someone clapped slowly, but Michaela did not move from her position over the boy.**_

"_**Today's round goes to Michaela," said a rasping voice. "Well fought, both of you. Release him."**_

_**Michaela followed the order, carefully withdrawing her blades and standing up. She extended a hand to the boy on the ground, and he took it, letting her pull him to his feet. They both turned and bowed to the red-armored goblin, their instructor, who was standing nearby.**_

"_**Thank you, Ardak," Michaela said.**_

_**The goblin nodded. "Go get cleaned up. Samaran, remember, you have the night shift tonight."**_

"_**Yes, Ardak," the boy replied.**_

_**The two young warriors began to walk towards the guardhouse.**_

"_**I've told you a thousand times, 'Cay," the boy complained, "ghosts aren't actually undead. Not ghost monsters, anyway."**_

_**Michaela laughed. "I know, Sam. I just say it to bug you."**_

_**Sam sighed and rolled his eyes. "It's not enough that you kick my butt on the training field every day?"**_

"_**Not **_**every **_**day!" Michaela protested. "I'm exhausted. If you hadn't transformed, you'd have had me for sure."**_

"_**Well, not everyone has a spell to help focus their rune energies," Sam pointed out, holding the guardhouse door open for her.**_

_**Michaela had to admit that her friend had a point. Sam had never met his father, and his mother was human; there had been no parent with magic to concentrate into a gem and activate Sam's monster blood. It had to be the specific parent; the spell they used was too user-specific. Without a spell to help him, Sam had less control over his transformations.**_

_**There were two bathroom stalls in the guardhouse, side-by-side. Michaela stepped into the one for girls. Near the ceiling was a bucket of water filled earlier that day; Michaela stripped off her sweaty clothes and pulled the rope attached to the bucket, pouring warm water onto her skin. Nearby, she heard Sam doing the same in his stall.**_

_**For a while, each washed themselves without speaking. Finally, Michaela broke the silence.**_

"_**Sam?"**_

"_**Yeah?"**_

"_**Does it ever bother you, what we do? The fighting, I mean. Does it ever feel…wrong?"**_

"_**Fighting? ...Well, we're pretty good at it."**_

_**Michaela reset the bucket. "That's what bothers me," she said. "We're good at it. Sometimes I even find myself **_**enjoying **_**it. And sometimes, I think… Maybe they're right about us."**_

"_**Maybe who are right?"**_

"_**The people outside this town. The humans, the monsters. The ones who think that only pain and suffering can come from humans and monsters living together. We're perfect evidence that the mixture creates something that causes pain."**_

_**There was a long pause. Michaela pulled a towel down from a nearby hook and began to dry herself.**_

"…_**please tell me you don't really believe that," Sam finally replied. "Fighting's good for us. You've heard Gilda's lectures as often as I have; dual-form combat helps us vent energy from our rune imbalance. We'd better vent it instead let it build up. Besides, it keeps us fit, and we can use our abilities to protect the town. You like being a guard, right?"**_

"_**Of course I do! The whole town depends on us. It's an honor to protect them."**_

"_**There you have it, then! We use violence for good reasons. Just because we inherited the ability to cause pain from our mixed heritage doesn't mean that we inherently cause pain and suffering."**_

_**Michaela shrugged. "I guess so…"**_

"_**Besides," Sam chuckled, "can you honestly say you imagine Julia ever causing pain and suffering?"**_

_**Michaela had to laugh, too, at the idea. "No way. That's not her nature."**_

"_**Nor is it ours."**_

_**Michaela smiled and reached out to touch the thin wall between the stalls. "Thanks, Sam."**_

_**She felt him tap the wall twice in response. "Anytime and every time, 'Cay. Anytime and every time."**_

…

_Sam… _Michaela thought. _I remember Sam. My friend. Half-monster, too. And my name…is Michaela! I guess I didn't forget my real name after all._

_And I was a guard in a town… My home… Where is it?_

But wrack her brains as she might, the location of the town eluded her.

_I can't remember…but I know it exists! And if it exists, then I can find it. I'll find it._

_There must be more of these orbs. I'll find them and get my memory back. Then I'll know what to do._

Michaela turned and strode determinedly back across the walkway and out of the clearing.

**XXX**

**A.N.: **Wow, it's been…exactly seven months since I've updated. If you're still with me after all this time, thanks a million! Have a cookie! I hope it's been worth the wait. (For the cookie, if not the chapter. Everybody wins.)


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